La charge mentale de travail : Un concept qui reste indispensable, l'exemple de l'aéronautique

Abstract

Based on observations from real work situations associated with a theoretical background, this article presents a framework on the notion of mental workload, as felt by operators, during task execution in the aviation domain. Such an overview has enabled us to select the principal mental workload parameters from a set of mental workload definitions from the literature. Moreover, these contributions have been reviewed in the light of the aviation main characteristics. Finally, a set of mental workload models are detailed to highlight the main features of the management of mental workload performed by operators during their working activity. The main contribution of this work relates to an operational model dedicated to describe activity regulations. This model called "GCMA" [Gestion de la Charge Mentale dans l'Aéronautique - Management of Mental Workload in Aeronautical situations] identifies the main sources of mental workload and the way they interact with each other during task execution. In this proposal, the way operators manage their mental workload is pre-sented as strongly dependent to four criteria: the available cognitive resources, the intended level of performance, the objective of the task and the remaining time to reach this objective. The dynamic nature of the situation supervised by the operator and the presence of task parallelism are defined as crucial elements involved in the management of mental workload in the aviation domain. This article is structured around three main sections: the aviation domain and especially its main characteristics; the integration of the domain characteristics in an operational model; the possible ways to define and model the concept of mental workload in order to support the model proposed. Such a tool comes as potential answer to an operational need in the aeronautics domain. It reflects the lack of knowledge on mental workload as an operator driven regulation model.