Using psychophysiological measurements in physically demanding virtual environments

Abstract

Psychophysiological evaluation of mental workload in human-computer interaction has generally been limited to situations with little physical load. This paper examines the viability of using heart rate, skin conductance, respiration and peripheral skin temperature as psychophysiological indicators in a physically demanding task performed in a simple virtual environment. Respiratory rate was found to be a good indicator of arousal while respiratory rate variability and skin temperature indicated changes in valence. © 2009 Springer.