Assessing Cognitive Load with Physiological Sensors

Assessing the cognitive load of a subject performing a computer task using task performance data is normally available at the end of the task. For assessing cognitive load, physiological data has the advantage of being available in real-time and the potential of assessing the affective components of cognitive load. Described are two new methods of assessing cognitive load from eye tracking and the pressures a subject applies to a computer mouse when subjects perform a math task that involves moving targets. Physiological measures that significantly discriminated task difficulty included eye movement, skin conductivity and one of the pressure signals from the computer mouse. Also, in some cases, these physiological measures can be more sensitive than task performance measures of cognitive load (i.e., incorrect actions) to detect interaction effects with task difficulty. The suite of physiological sensors is shown to be a viable alternative or supplement to task performance measures.