Development of Saccade Length Index of Taskload for Biocybernetic Application

An Automated Task Load Indexing System

“…We plan to attend to this logical distinction in our work on this project as it can affect measurement precision. We discuss this issue more completely elsewhere (Kennedy, May, Jones, & Fowlkes, 1989), but it is a recurring theme in this report and we believe should be developed further. Inattention to the implication of this model can invalidate an entire experiment or systems analysis.…”

“…Research has been conducted to study physiological indicants and much of the recent work has employed blink (Stern 1990) and heart rate (Moray et al, 1986;Wierwille, Rahimi, & Casali, 1985;Hart & Hauser, 1987. The research in this field is broad arid we have reviewed it elsewhere (Kennedy, May, Jones, & Fowlkes, 1989). Several years ago, we also reviewed (Kennedy, 1972) several studies showing that aspects of eye movement activity were correlated with the mental state of the subject.…”

“…Based on these relations, we began a basic research program for the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Kennedy, May, Jones, & Fowlkes, 1989). In the Air Force experiment, while searching for a velocity indicant of arousal, we found that other aspects of eye movements (viz.…”

“…Visual tasks which differ in demand characteristics (field size, mental activity, complexity) serve as the behavioral controls. Our previous work (Kennedy, Fowlkes, & Smith, 1989;Kennedy, May, Jones, & Fowlkes, 1989) emphasized auditory tasks and suggested that measurement of some eye movement parameters (e.g., range, velocity, and acceleration) could provide a viable and sensitive indicant of cognitive work load. We hypothesized that further development of these indicants was warranted where eye movement measures were related to graded levels of a set of visually-based tasks which have factorial diversity.…”

“…The Counting Test, with which we have had success previously, has been modified for visual and auditory presentation. Use of this task is an extension of our previous work (Kennedy, Fowlkes, & Smith, 1989;Kennedy, May, Jones, & Fowlkes, 1989). The APTS is a battery of mental acuity tests which incorporates tests of verbal, spatial, and motor ability.…”