Human Factors in Simple and Complex Systems, 3rd Edition

9	Attention and the Assessment of Mental Workload

The theoretical importance of attention can be seen at two different levels. First as one of the three main limits on human information processing … Second, attentional properties underlie many other psychological phenomena … The applied importance of attention is also manifest in several ways … The dangers of distracted drivers, the attentional overload of making sense of massive data bases, the rapid attention switching required in the electronic workplace, [and] the success or failure of unreliable alarms to capture attention … are all examples.

C. D. Wickens & J. S. McCarley2008

INTRODUCTION

Driving a car is a complex task composed of many subtasks, each of which must be performed ...