Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ) is an easily administered 17-item measure for subjective workload assessment that aims to provide high diagnosticity by identifying the load on specific resources. Here validity data from two experiments are reported. Experiment 1 employs two computer-based games and finds that workload as assessed by the MRQ correlates significantly with ratings of overall workload, and with a composite of time demand, mental demand, and stress demand ratings. Because these are important dimensions of other well-accepted workload instruments (i.e., OW, NASA-TLX, and SWAT), the results support the construct validity of the MRQ. Experiment 2 assesses interference between pairings of four laboratory-based tasks, and finds that MRQ-based similarity indices significantly predict the degree of interference between tasks. This outcome supports the criterion validity of the MRQ.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Boles

D. B.

(2001). Multiple resources. In Karwowski

(Editor), International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors. Taylor & Francis, in press.

Boles

D. B.

Adair

L. P.

(2001). The Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ). Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, submitted.

Hart

S. G.

Staveland

L. E.

(1988). Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In Hancock

P. A.

Meshkati

(Eds.), Human Mental Workload (pp. 139–183). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Hill

S. G.

Iavecchia

H. P.

Byers

J. C.

Bittner

A.C.

Zaklad

A.L.

Christ

R. E.

(1992). Comparison of four subjective workload rating scales. Human Factors, 34, 429–439.

Reid

G. B.

Nygren

T. E.

(1988). The Subjective Workload Assessment Technique: A scaling procedure for measuring mental workload. In Hancock

P. A.

Meshkati

(Eds.), Human Mental Workload (pp. 185–218). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Vidulich

M. A.

Tsang

P. S.

(1986). Techniques of subjective workload assessment: A comparison of SWAT and NASA-Bipolar methods. Ergonomics, 29, 1385–1398.

Wickens

C. D.

Hollands

J. G.

(2000). Engineering Psychology and Human Performance. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Validity of the Multiple Resources Questionnaire (MRQ)

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References