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Assessing cognitive load through eye metrics in in-motion vs. stationary environments
Yuzhang Li1, Bin Zheng2, Peter Grant3
1University of Alberta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Objective:
Quantifying cognitive load during whole-body motion is crucial for professions such as aircraft pilots and paramedics. This study incorporates eye metrics to monitor cognitive load changes during aiming tasks with different levels of difficulty (ID) while the participant was either stationary or experiencing whole-body motion (in-motion condition).
Method:
25 participants completed reciprocal aiming tasks under both in-motion and stationary conditions. The IDs were modified by altering target distances and sizes. Eye metrics, including pupil size, blink rate, fixation dispersion, and eye saccadic movements, were analyzed.
Results:
Under in-motion conditions, significantly larger pupil dilation was observed by more than 100 %; Blink rate decreased by 27 % for difficult tasks; Participants displayed significantly larger fixation dispersion by 29 %. Participants' eyes frequently overshot targets while scanning between targets, followed by a series of corrective adjustments, for both conditions.
Conclusions:
The in-motion condition significantly increased cognitive load, exaggerated pupil dilation, suppressed eye blinks, and intensified fixation dispersion.
Applications:
Eye metrics assess cognitive load in moving environments, offering reliable tools to study the effects of motion. This aids in developing training protocols to minimize negative impacts on individuals working under whole-body motion conditions.
