LAUSR

This study provides a systematic synthesis of empirical research on mental workload (MWL) in air traffic control (ATC). MWL is a key concept in research on innovative technologies, because the assessment of MWL is crucial to the evaluation of such technologies. Our specific focus was on physiological measures of MWL. The used search strategy identified 39 peer-reviewed publications that analyzed ATC tasks, examined different levels of difficulty of the ATC task, and considered at least one physiological measure of MWL. Positive relations between measures of MWL and task difficulty were observed most frequently, indicating that the measures indeed allowed the assessment of MWL. The most commonly used physiological measures were brain measures (EEG and fNIR) and heart rate measures. The review revealed a need for more precise descriptions of crucial experimental parameters in order to permit a transition of the field toward more interactive and dynamic types of analysis.