Heart Rate Correlates of Mental Workload in a Large-Scale Air-Combat Simulation Training Exercise

Abstract

Automated and real-time measures of mental workload (MW) may benefit scenario management, performance assessment and feedback during simulation training. Heart rate (HR) metrics show promise as surrogates of MW and thus, could provide a basis for the development of such tools. The goal for this study was to explore the relationship between HR metrics and MW in operators during large-scale, multi-team, simulated air-combat missions. A number of significant correlations between HR metrics and MW were identified, all of which exhibited trends consistent with previous research. However, the relationships between HR metrics and MW ratings were different across different task roles, suggesting that individual differences and/or task-specific demands may be important for determining the HR metrics to serve as surrogates of MW in future real-time assessment. Finally, hierarchical linear regression demonstrated that collectively, HR metrics were predictive of MW, even with individual differences and repeated measures effects accounted for in the model. This implies that HR metrics are viable sources of information from which to build predictive MW models for operators performing command and control (C2) tasks.