IRC PEPS postdoctoral application Enrique Munoz de Escalona

Mental workload and mental fatigue are important concepts in Cognitive Ergonomics and Work Sciences. Proper management of these constructs is essential for ensuring occupational health and safety and optimizing business productivity. Although they are intangible and not directly measurable, science has identified certain indexes that reflect their variations: performance, psychophysiological, and subjective measures.

The expectation is that these measures would show high convergence, meaning we could assess changes in mental workload and fatigue independently. However, research has often shown divergences between these measures, which poses a challenge for effectively managing mental workload and fatigue.

This research focused on developing reliable, valid, and effective methodologies to evaluate mental workload and fatigue. The main objective was to explore the causes and circumstances leading to divergences between different assessment methodologies and to identify new psychophysiological measures capable of overcoming traditional limitations.