Mental workload: what it is, how to study it and how to manage it

Let's take a look at what mental workload is and how it influences performance and well-being.

As ergonomics becomes more and more important in the workplace, aspects such as the mental strain and fatigue to which workers may be subjected become issues to be taken into account to ensure not only good performance, but also to prevent mistakes from being made.

The idea of mental workload refers to how cognitively demanding a task is depending on how difficult it is and the worker's own capabilities.

This idea is very important when it comes to managing work in an organization and we will now go into more detail about why.

What is mental workload?

In any job it is necessary to put into operation mechanisms or processes, both physical and mental, to carry out the tasks required. These mechanisms involve what has been called "workload", which can be defined as the set of psychophysical requirements to which an employee is subjected in order to perform the tasks required. the set of psychophysical requirements to which an employee is subjected throughout the working day, having more or less repercussions on his or her performance and health..

Few jobs are purely "intellectual" or purely "physical", since regardless of the sector in which you work, you will always have to perform tasks that require different skills, which can be of both types.

However, from a theoretical point of view, we can differentiate between physical and mental work depending on the predominant activity and, based on this, we can speak of two types of workloads: physical, when muscle is required to work, and mental, when thinking and reflection are required.

Taking all this into account, we can say that the mental workload is the set of mental, cognitive or intellectual requirements to which a worker is subjected throughout his working day. This is becoming increasingly important because new forms of work organization, together with technological and computer advances, facilitate manual work while requiring more intellectual work compared to more traditional jobs. compared to more traditional jobs.

Both mental and physical workload depend on the interaction or relationship between two factors.

• The demands of the job
• The characteristics of the individual performing the task.

This means that the individual's responsiveness varies according to the demands of the job to be performed as well as the individual's own characteristics.. When the demands of the job do not match the worker's capabilities, that is, when the individual has a certain inability or difficulty to perform the work he/she is supposed to do, we speak of inadequate workload.

Consequences of mental workload

The mental workload represents the mental stress to which a worker is subjected in a specific period of time and having to face a certain task.

This condition is neither intrinsically good nor bad, but depends on how it is given, its duration in time and degree of exhaustion, and to what extent the person who presents it feels that he/she is capable of doing the intellectual tasks requested. and to what extent the person who presents it feels that he/she is capable of doing the intellectual tasks requested of him/her. Based on this, we can comment on two types of consequences of mental workload.

1. Facilitating effects

Generically, we can define facilitating effects as those positive consequences of having a certain mental workload.

Among the facilitating effects we can find the warming-up effect, a phenomenon that implies that the worker requires a lesser amount of effort.. That is, it is the phenomenon by which, thanks to a certain mental tension, we perform more fluently in the intellectually demanding task.

2. Detrimental effects

Being subjected to cognitively demanding tasks for a long time or tasks that are more difficult than what we are used to can have detrimental effects, the main one being mental fatigue.

This can be defined as a transitory reduction in mental and physical efficiency depending on the intensity, duration and temporal distribution of the mental stress to which the worker is subjected.. Fatigue leads to irritability, more errors, accidents and poorer decision making.

Depending on how long the worker has been fatigued, we can speak of two types of fatigue: physiological or normal and chronic. Physiological fatigue is the normal tiredness we feel when we have carried out a cognitively demanding activity, a loss of normal homeostasis, which can be recovered by taking a break. However, in case the individual is subjected to fatigue for a long time, without being able to rest adequately, this state will become chronic, causing damage at the psychological level.

Evaluation

The expression "mental workload" refers to a concept that is neither unitary nor unidimensional, so that its evaluation is not a uniform procedure. its evaluation is not a uniform procedure. There is no single ideal and perfect way to evaluate this type of work-related phenomenon.

Fortunately, there are several ways to evaluate and measure it depending on the purpose of what is to be observed, evaluating different aspects of mental work using different measurement techniques and with different degrees of accuracy.

Among techniques and instruments for assessing mental workload include the following. we have the following.

1. Physiological measurements

Physiological measurements record the physiological changes produced in the worker's organism that are related to the demands of the task he/she has to perform. Among these measures electrical brain activity, blink rate, pular diameter or Heart rate, among others..

2. Subjective techniques

Subjective techniques reflect the worker's own perceived level of mental workload. Among these measures we can find the NASA-TLX, SWAT or the Cooper-Harper scale.

3. Performance evaluation

It would consist of all those tools that evaluate the mental and psychomotor performance of the employee under certain working conditions, for example, to determine the variations of the employee's mental and psychomotor performance in a given work environment.The purpose is to determine, for example, variations in employee performance attributable to the effects of mental workload.

4. Job and task analysis

Job analysis involves assessing the sources of mental workload such as task elements, physical working conditions, environmental...

Prevention

As we have already mentioned, mental workload in itself is neither good nor bad, but depends on the amount of mental workload. For example, in many cases a certain level of mental workload is necessary to motivate the worker and prevent him from getting bored, since a job that is too simple can lead to a loss of motivation.For example, a certain level of mental workload is often necessary to motivate the worker and prevent him from getting bored, since a job that is too simple may be seen as too monotonous and consequently he may get fed up with it, or undervalue it and make mistakes.

On the other hand, if the work is too complicated, he may eventually get tired and have an accident because he has not paid enough attention.

This is why, in order to avoid the avoid the detrimental consequences of mental workloadsIf you are not aware of any mental fatigue, caused by either having given workers overly complicated tasks or by not paying enough attention to how fatigued they were, the following points should be followed:

• Pay attention to details that may contribute to mental exhaustion.
• Take into consideration the work environment that may influence work performance.
• Adequately train workers to perform their tasks.
• Adequately train in the avoidance of occupational hazards.
• Facilitate control over employees and detect cases of fatigue.
• Organize work in such a way as to avoid the occurrence of mental fatigue.