Cognitive workload analysis in rail signalling environments

When working in safety critical environments, such as railway signalling, technologies are often used to assist the operator in order to make safe decisions as well as to increase efficiency. Keeping mental workload at manageable levels is one of the most critical factors to ensure that tasks can be completed in a safe and effective manner. Numerous methods have been used to measure mental workload, but none of these have managed to show the use of distinct resource pools. This paper therefore measures the levels of usage of different cognitive processes when typical tasks are carried out in two railway signalling environments. To that end, the Multiple Resource Questionnaire is used. The aims of this paper are twofold: First, it establishes the value of the Multiple Resource Questionnaire as a technique in human factors. Second, it investigates and compares the cognitive resources required to carry out the railway signalling task in two different signalling environments.