Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources.

A physiological measure of processing load or "mental effort" required to perform a cognitive task should accurately reflect within-task, between-task, and betweenindividual variations in processing demands. This article reviews all available experimental data and concludes that the task-evoked pupillary response fulfills these criteria. Alternative explanations are considered and rejected. Some implications for neurophysiological and cognitive theories of processing resources are discussed.

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