Using Psychophysiological Sensors to Assess Mental Workload During Web Browsing

Sensors (Basel). 2018 Feb 3;18(2):458. doi: 10.3390/s18020458.

Abstract

Knowledge of the mental workload induced by a Web page is essential for improving users' browsing experience. However, continuously assessing the mental workload during a browsing task is challenging. To address this issue, this paper leverages the correlation between stimuli and physiological responses, which are measured with high-frequency, non-invasive psychophysiological sensors during very short span windows. An experiment was conducted to identify levels of mental workload through the analysis of pupil dilation measured by an eye-tracking sensor. In addition, a method was developed to classify mental workload by appropriately combining different signals (electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram, photoplethysmo-graphy (PPG), electroencephalogram (EEG), temperature and pupil dilation) obtained with non-invasive psychophysiological sensors. The results show that the Web browsing task involves four levels of mental workload. Also, by combining all the sensors, the efficiency of the classification reaches 93.7%.

Keywords: Web browsing tasks; machine learning; mental workload; psychophysiological sensors.

MeSH terms

  • Electrocardiography
  • Electroencephalography
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Workload*