Evaluating a new index of mental workload in real ATC situation using psychophysiological measures

One way to improve both capacity and safety in air traffic control (ATC) implies to assist the human operator, while he remains in the decision loop. Designing high performance tools requires a precise tuning in order to interface them efficiently and non-intrusively with the controller, especially in heavy workload contexts. To this end, knowledge of workload sources and fluctuations is essential and has triggered a large number of studies. Surprisingly, there is no universally accepted definition of mental workload: a consensus exists merely to define it as the "cost" of a given task for the operator. Concept of mental load is related to information processing theory Limited capacity of cognitive resources and sequential processing of information define what can be overload. an excessive demand on perceptual and cognitive resources (visual and auditory perception, memory and attention, among others) with respect to information processing capacities. In the present study, we would like to propose a different way to model the link between aircraft configuration and perceived workload.