Background: Objective measures have been shown to be equally sensitive in different cultures. However, these measures need special devices that are relatively expensive and need expertise to analyze the result. In Indonesia, there is a need for a sensitive and affordable mental workload measure.
Objective: To evaluate the sensitivity of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) in assessing mental workload in Indonesia.
Participants: A total of 72 Indonesian students with normal visual capability.
Method: Participants were asked to work on visual memory search task with a secondary task of counting with three different levels of difficulty. GSR, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and the NASA-TLX were administered prior to, during, and after the tasks.
Results: GSR measure was compared to NASA-TLX and HRV measures. Like the HRV, GSR showed to be sensitive in distinguishing rest and task condition significantly but not sensitive in distinguishing different levels of mental workload. In contrast, both the NASA-TLX and performance measure were sensitive in differentiating different levels of mental workload.
Conclusions: GSR has potential as a simple, cost-effective tool for measuring mental workload in Indonesia.
Keywords: Heart Rate Variability; performance; the NASA-TLX; visual task.