A Study on Visual Workload Components: Effects of Component Combination and Scenario Complexity on Mental Workload in Maritime Operation Tasks.

Mental workload is a key factor in influencing human performance of maritime tasks among which visual tasks dominate. Through a lab experiment, this study examined the effects of visual workload components, their combinations and scenario complexity on mental workload. 20 participants were recruited to perform visual tasks on a simulated platform. Results showed that some combinations of visual components significantly increased the participants’ mental workload. Scenario complexity was found to have significant interaction effects with workload component combinations. The results indicate that because of their negative effects on task performance, some combinations of workload components should be specially avoided in task design.