Evaluating effects of workload on trust in automation, attention allocation and dual-task performance

This study aimed to examine how workload and automation aid type affected operators’ trust in automation, attention allocation and dual-task performance. With a simulated surveillance task, participants monitored the picture steaming from an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) while planning the paths of two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The analysis of experimental results indicated that workload affected operators’ attention allocation and dual-task performance, but not their trust in automation. As workload increased, attention allocation on the automated task decreased and on the concurrent task increased. Moreover, an increasing workload led to longer response time for the automated task. For the concurrent task, higher workload harmed task performance accuracy but resulting in shorter response time.