Workshopbeitrag
Investigating Cognitive Load in Emergency Control Room Simulations
Vorschaubild nicht verfügbar
Volltext URI
Dokumententyp
Text/Workshop Paper
Zusatzinformation
Datum
2023
Zeitschriftentitel
ISSN der Zeitschrift
Bandtitel
Verlag
GI
Zusammenfassung
We propose a novel approach to measure cognitive load in emergency control room operators using their breathing patterns. By using LstSim, a community-driven emergency control room simulator, we aim to recreate the work environment of a dispatcher, induce a cognitive load, and measure the response in the user’s breathing. Participants were monitored and recorded through wearable sensors, depth cameras below the screens, and simulation-internal parameters and interactions. The participants’ breathing patterns were analyzed to identify changes in breathing amplitude in response to varying levels of cognitive load. The results of our study provide compelling evidence that a simulated control room environment is successful in inducing cognitive load on participants shown in a significant increase in NASA TLX scores as well as a 13% increase in breathing amplitude. Despite the challenges posed by this individual variability, our findings also highlight the potential of using breathing as a real-time, noninvasive measure of cognition in control rooms. This has significant implications for the design and operation of emergency control rooms, potentially leading to the development of more responsive systems that adapt to the operator’s cognition load, thereby enhancing performance and effectiveness.