Monitoring working memory load during computer-based tasks with EEG pattern recognition methods - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1998 Mar;40(1):79-91.
doi: 10.1518/001872098779480578.

Monitoring working memory load during computer-based tasks with EEG pattern recognition methods

A Gevins  1 , M E Smith, H Leong, L McEvoy, S Whitfield, R Du, G Rush
Affiliations

Monitoring working memory load during computer-based tasks with EEG pattern recognition methods

A Gevins et al. Hum Factors. 1998 Mar.

Abstract

We assessed working memory load during computer use with neural network pattern recognition applied to EEG spectral features. Eight participants performed high-, moderate-, and low-load working memory tasks. Frontal theta EEG activity increased and alpha activity decreased with increasing load. These changes probably reflect task difficulty-related increases in mental effort and the proportion of cortical resources allocated to task performance. In network analyses, test data segments from high and low load levels were discriminated with better than 95% accuracy. More than 80% of test data segments associated with a moderate load could be discriminated from high- or low-load data segments. Statistically significant classification was also achieved when applying networks trained with data from one day to data from another day, when applying networks trained with data from one task to data from another task, and when applying networks trained with data from a group of participants to data from new participants. These results support the feasibility of using EEG-based methods for monitoring cognitive load during human-computer interaction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources