Analysis of Heart Rate Variability as an Estimate of Pilot Workload in Human Engineering Research

摘要

The usefulness of measurements of heart rate variability (HRV) for the assessment of pilot stress was studied in a laboratory experiment. A number of HRV parameters were recorded with respect to various experimentally controlled levels of mental workload. A tracking task with three levels of difficulty was presented to 12 test subjects. The heart rate variability was determined in the form of standard deviations, sums of absolute differences and the frequency of instantaneous heart rate reversals. The data were analyzed by statistical methods. The HRV parameters showed such a wide dispersion that it is not possible to detect differences in stress as a result of changes in task difficulty.