Abstract
Workload is an important factor that affects human performance in an operating system. This research study investigates the interaction of physical workload, mental workload and arousal level on performance and working memory. Fifteen participants (ages 25-35) performed a physical task (pedalling on a bicycle-ergometer) under three different levels of resistance load (low, mid and high) concurrently with a mental task (arithmetic) at three levels of demand (simple, intermediate and difficult). Participants also completed two subjective assessments following the task, Borg-CR10 and NASA-TLX to evaluate the perceived physical and mental workload respectively. The hypothesis of the study is that optimum performance occurs at intermediate levels of workload, whereas poor performance is observed at the low and high levels of physical and mental demand due to underload and overload.