MATB for assessing different mental workload levels

Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) is a computerized flight simulator for aviation-related tasks, suitable for non-pilots and available in many versions, including open source. MATB requires the individual or simultaneous execution of 4 sub-tasks: system monitoring (SYSMON), tracking (TRACK), communications (COMM), and resource management (RESMAN). Fully customizable, the design of test duration, number of sub-tasks used, event rates, response times and overlap, create different levels of mental load. MATB can be combined with an additional auditory attention (Oddball) task, or with physiological constraints (i.e., sleep loss, exercise, hypoxia). We aimed to assess the main characteristics of MATB design for assessing the response to different workload levels. We identified and reviewed 19 articles for which the effects of low and high workload were analyzed. Although MATB has shown promise in detecting performance degradation due to increase workload, studies have yielded conflicting or unclear results regarding MATB configurations. Increased event rates, number of sub-tasks (multitasking), and overlap are associated with increased perceived workload score (ex. NASA-TLX), decreased performance (especially tracking), and neurophysiological responses, while no effect of time-on-task is observed. The median duration used for the test is 20 min (range 12-60) with a level duration of 10 min (range 4-15). To assess mental workload, the median number of stimuli is respectively 3 events/min (range 0.6-17.2) for low, and 23.5 events/min (range 9-65) for high workload level. In this review, we give some recommendations for standardization of MATB design, configuration, description and training, in order to improve reproducibility and comparison between studies, a challenge for the future researches, as human-machine interaction and digital influx increase for pilots. We also open the discussion on the possible use of MATB in the context of aeronautical/operational constraints in order to assess the effects combined with changes in mental workload levels. Thus, with appropriate levels of difficulty, MATB can be used as a suitable simulation tool to study the effects of changes on the mental workload of aircraft pilots, during different operational and physiological constraints.