Application of the Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ) to a Complex Gaming Environment

Abstract

The Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ) is an easily administered instrument for measuring subjective workload, with a previously demonstrated ability to predict dual-task interference between simple laboratory-based tasks. Here its predictive properties are investigated using complex computer-based games. Participants performed pairs of games simultaneously with opposite hands. Percent performance decrements relative to single games were found to be positively correlated to the resource similarity between games as assessed by the MRQ. Specifically, a profile similarity metric (RSQ, the squared correlation between games in resource usage) significantly outperformed metrics based on overlap similarity (OLAP, the summation of minima across resources) and overall demand (TOT, the total demand summed across resources). The correlation obtained between the RSQ metric and task interference, r = +0.61, indicates that the MRQ possesses substantial criterion validity when applied to complex tasks.