Affiliation:
1. Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen
2. Department of Cognitive and Brain Engineering, Korea University
Abstract
The cognitive workload of a steering task could reflect its demand on attentional as well as working memory resources under different conditions. These respective demands could be differentiated by evaluating components of the event-related potential (ERP) response to different types of stimulus probes, which are claimed to reflect the availability of either attention (i.e., novelty-P3) or working memory (i.e., target-P3) resources. Here, a within-subject analysis is employed to evaluate the robustness of ERP measurements in discriminating the cognitive demands of different steering conditions. We find that the amplitude of novelty-P3 ERPs to task-irrelevant environmental sounds is diminished when participants are required to perform a steering task. This indicates that steering places a demand on attentional resources. In addition, target-P3 ERPs to a secondary auditory detection task vary when the controller dynamics in the steering task are manipulated. This indicates that differences in controller dynamics vary in their working memory demands.
Subject
General Medicine,General Chemistry