SOFTWARE: Cognitive Workload

The pupil is surrounded by two sets of muscles, a circular set and a radial set. The circular muscles react to the presence or absence of light; the radial muscles react when a person exerts mental effort. The Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA) measures pupil changes resulting from mental effort (radial muscles) while factoring out the light reflex (circular muscles). This patented metric is the culmination of three decades of research into cognition and assessment. It was developed under DoD support through projects with the Office of Naval Research.

The ICA has been used by researchers all over the world to meet a range of different objectives in a variety of different contexts.

• Measure the level of difficulty experienced in a simulator
• Compare workload across multiple iterations of an interface
• Diagnose specific features of a task that are associated with high workload
• Optimize training materials based on a quantifiable measure of difficulty
• Identify opportunities to improve ease of system operation
• Demonstrate workload differences between user groups

The ICA has been an integral part of some of the most important cognitive workload research of the past decade. The focus of these studies has included:

• Automobile drivers
• FAA Air Traffic Controllers
• TSA Baggage Screeners
• Laparoscopic Surgeons
• U.S. Naval Officers
• NASA Trainees
• Subjects with neurological disorders

THE CLIENT

Northrop Grumman, a leading global security company

THE OBJECTIVE

EyeTracking, Inc. utilized the Index of Cognitive Activity (ICA) to evaluate two versions (current and redesigned) of a mission critical system designed to monitor air, surface and subsurface traffic for the Space and Naval Warfare Command. The goal of this research ...

VIEW COMPLETE CASE STUDY...