Real Time Research Methods: Monitoring Air Traffic Controller Workload During Simulation Studies Using Electroencephalography (EEG)

摘要

For the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), the ability to reliablymeasure the effects of automation changes or new task demands on controller/pilot workload andperformance is critical. Much of the EEG research has focused on identifying specific cognitivestates associated with levels of workload during post processing. However, there are potentialbenefits for researchers to having EEG results as a continuous measure that can be observedduring simulation experiments. This demonstration is a workload gauge that processes EEG datain real time as the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) participant is performing basic cognitive andoperational ATC tasks. The visualizations demonstrated are also available during post processingto enable investigation of the continuous relationships between ATC situational variables,controller performance, and EEG.