Changes in heart rate variability during manual controlled rendezvous and docking with task complexity

Abstract

This research aims to study how HRV parameters change with task complexity during manual controlled Rendezvous and Docking (RVD). One one-factor experiment was conducted. The experiment task was manual controlled Rendezvous and Docking (RVD) operation and the factor was task complexity which was divided into three levels. Eight male volunteers participated in this experiment, which consisted of three trials, and each of which consisted of ten operation units containing three complexity levels. The dependent variables were main performance parameters and HRV parameters. Results showed that operation time and fuel consumption changed significantly with different complexity levels. Besides, there were significant differences on partial HRV parameters. It can be inferred that some HRV parameters are useful for mental workload evaluation. However, the relationship between the insignificant parameters and complexity levels needs to be validated and the way how HRV should be used for mental workload evaluation deserves further study. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.