Influence of Complexity and Noise on Mental Workload During a Manual Assembly Task

Mass customization implies an increase of product variants, complexity, and information processing of operators. Generally it is supposed that this leads to an increase of mental workload. Using a real-work-like laboratory setting, subjects should complete tasks of increasing complexity while mental workload is obtained using various parameters (subjective, performance related, and physiological). Additionally subjects are confronted with two levels of industrial noise which will increase mental workload on top of complexity. Results indicate that there is a significant influence of complexity and the interaction of complexity and noise on mental workload. Further physiological reaction patterns (electrocardiographic and eye tracking data) to process parts with higher informational load are investigated and concurrent patterns for pupillary response, fixation duration, and heart rate variability can be shown.