Comparison of two pupillometric measures as indicators of cognitive strain and under the influence of screen luminance.

The pupil diameter has been shown to provide insight to a person's experienced cognitive strain. Pupillary light responses, however, make this measure unreliable in uncontrolled settings. Two derived indicators-Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA) and Index of Pupillary Activity (IPA)-aim to 'eliminate' lighting influences, changing based only on the perceived cognitive strain.

Work interruptions of office workers: The influence of the complexity of primary work tasks on the perception of interruptions.

Background: Research demonstrates that work interruptions are considered one of the most common work stressors. Understanding the mechanisms of work interruptions is therefore vital to reducing worker stress and maintaining performance.

Objective: The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of the frequency of work interruptions on subjective workload in the context of office work.

Using IoT devices for sensor-based monitoring of employees' mental workload: Investigating managers' expectations and concerns.

Although the objective assessment of mental workload has been a focus of human factors research, few studies have investigated stakeholders' attitudes towards its implementation in real workplaces. The present study addresses this research gap by surveying N = 702 managers in three European countries (Germany, United Kingdom, Spain) about their expectations and concerns regarding sensor-based monitoring of employee mental workload. The data confirm the relevance of expectations regarding improvements of workplace design and employee well-being, as well as concerns about restrictions of employees' privacy and sovereignty, for the implementation of workload monitoring.

Investigation of observational methods assessing workload of static working postures based on surface electromyography.

Background: A large number of different methods are available to identify and assess working postures. Although observation-based methods are most commonly used in practise, investigations showed different results regarding validity of such methods.

Objective: To investigate validity of one of the most commonly used observation-based assessment method in ergonomics, the Ovako Working Posture Analysing System (OWAS) and the European standard EN 1005-4 for evaluation of working postures, an experimental laboratory study was conducted.