The level of mental workload related to the index of difficulty of the motor task and handedness

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Manual movements are affected by the index of difficulty of the task and handedness. High index of difficulty and execution with the non-dominant hand can increase the mental workload.AIM: This study investigated the relation between the level of mental workload, the index of difficulty of the task, and handedness in manual movements.METHOD: Twenty-three right-handed male students (24.1 ± 4.3 years) participated in this study. The index of difficulty in the Grooved Pegboard task was manipulated by placing and removing the pegs and manipulation of handedness was made via right and left hand execution. Two mental workload metrics were obtained by electroencephalographic analysis: EEG-cognitive index, and EEG-workload index.RESULTS: The index of difficulty analyses indicated lower movement time when removing the pegs (low index of difficulty) compared to placing the pegs (high index of difficulty). EEG-workload index was higher when placing the pegs than removing. The handedness analyses indicated lower movement time with the right hand compared to the left hand. However, similar levels of mental workload were found.CONCLUSION: Results suggest higher mental effort when index of difficulty is increased, but not when the left non-dominant hand is performing the task.

Association Between the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met Polymorphism and Manual Performance Asymmetries

“…Therefore, whether or not an individual's COMT genotype favors motor performance depends partly on the nature of the task to be performed (Tunbridge et al, 2006), such that greater asymmetry is associated with increased ID that demands greater information processing. Lelis-Torres et al (2017) showed, through electroencephalographic analyses, that the index of mental working load was higher under the place condition than under the remove condition of the Grooved Pegboard Test. As the mental working load is a function of the perceptual, cognitive, and motor task demands, there can also be expected differences between right-and left-hand performances of the same task (Lelis-Torres et al, 2017).…”

“…The greater asymmetry for participants during the place condition relative to the remove condition was expected, since the increased task difficulty and greater accuracy demands of the place condition have both been linked with greater lateral asymmetries (Bryden et al., 2007; Vasconcelos & Rodrigues, 2008). Prior studies using the Grooved Pegboard Test to investigate manual asymmetries showed a greater RT when placing the pegs (higher ID) than when removing the pegs (lower ID; Bryden & Roy, 2005; Fernandes, Souza, Sales, & Apolinário-Souza, 2018; Lelis-Torres et al., 2017; Salvador et al., 2017). This difference observed in right- and left-hand performance among these participants may have been attributable to contralateral hemisphere specialization for voluntary movement organization and control (Elliott & Roy, 1996).…”

“…Furthermore, force modulation is required to reach and place the pegs, also demanding fine adjustments in spatial accuracy. Thus, a decrease in performance is observed when the ID of the task is higher or when the task is performed with the left hand (for right-handed people), as this task is then associated with a higher level of engagement of mental resources (Lelis-Torres et al., 2017).…”

“…(2017) showed, through electroencephalographic analyses, that the index of mental working load was higher under the place condition than under the remove condition of the Grooved Pegboard Test. As the mental working load is a function of the perceptual, cognitive, and motor task demands, there can also be expected differences between right- and left-hand performances of the same task (Lelis-Torres et al., 2017). Differences between Val/Val and Met/Met genotypes in roles played by tonic and phasic DA (Bilder et al., 2004; Grace, 1991) interact with task differences in information processing to effect performance differences between people with variant COMT genotypes.…”

The Redesign of a Checklist for Evaluating Driver Impairment: A Human Factors and Ergonomics Approach

“…Checking boxes by hand requires moving the pencil from box to box; a landmark study on such types of movement was written by Fitts in 1954, leading to them being called Fitts’s tasks. Movement time [ 17 , 18 ] and cognitive load [ 19 ] have been shown to increase alongside the Fitts task’s index of difficulty (ID), which is a log 2 function of the ratio between the distance between the two checkboxes (A) and the size of the checkbox (W) at the location of arrival; ID = log 2 (1 + A/W). The efficiency and usability of a checklist can be improved by reducing the ID of the pointing tasks; checkboxes should be of sufficient size and arranged such that they minimize the total travel path of the hand.…”