ReviewFrontiers in psychology2021
The Validity of Physiological Measures to Identify Differences in Intrinsic Cognitive Load.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 188 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Load Measurement Methods for Usability Testing: A Critical Analysis and Framework for Interface Evaluation.Human factors · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring the Correlations Between Measures of Listening Effort in Adults and Children: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis.Trends in hearingPooled it
- Effects of adaptive scaffolding on performance, cognitive load and engagement in game-based learning: a randomized controlled trial.BMC medical education · 2024Trial
- Beyond Performance: Cognitive Overload and Related Cognitive, Psychophysiological, and Performance States in Competitive Esports-A Scoping Review.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Enhancing speech recall and reducing cognitive load through rhythmic amplitude modulated vibrotactile stimulation in noise.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Modeling human social vision with cinematic stimuli: An integrative approach.Journal of vision · 2026Article
- Sensing Cognitive Responses Through a Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interface.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Effects of robotic assistance on muscle activation and fatigue during overground walking in non-disabled individuals: an exploratory study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Immersive competence as a source of bias in virtual reality clinical assessment.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Beyond peak accuracy: a stability-centric framework for reliable multimodal student engagement assessment.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Optimizing cognitive load in Guzheng learning: a narrative review of demonstration, segmented practice, and feedback scaffolding.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Enhancing handicraft intangible cultural heritage learning through immersive VR serious games: a multimodal study on natural interaction effectiveness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Classical back massage is associated with lower heart rate and sustained mean skin conductance during recovery after cognitive load: an exploratory controlled pilot study.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Visualizations during arithmetic tasks hamper performance and increase cognitive load in 9-year-olds: an fNIRS study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Learners' perceptions of the medical pause: cognitive load and team performance.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Discriminative Capabilities of Eye Gaze Measures for Cognitive Load Evaluation in a Driving Simulation Task.Journal of eye movement research · 2025Article
- CogMamba: Multi-Task Driver Cognitive Load and Physiological Non-Contact Estimation with Multimodal Facial Features.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The impact of intraoperative optical coherence tomography on cognitive load in virtual reality vitreoretinal surgery training.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Seeing Is Feeling: How Aphantasia Alters Emotional Engagement With Stories.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Cerebellar and subcortical interplay in cognitive dysmetria: functional network signatures associate with symptom and trait assessments across schizophrenia, bipolar II, and ADHD patients.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A sample of 33 experiments was extracted from the Web-of-Science database over a 5-year period (2016-2020) that used physiological measures to measure intrinsic cognitive load. Only studies that required participants to solve tasks of varying complexities using a within-subjects design were included. The sample identified a number of different physiological measures obtained by recording signals from four main body categories (heart and lungs, eyes, skin, and brain), as well as subjective measures. The overall validity of the measures was assessed by examining construct validity and sensitivity. It was found that the vast majority of physiological measures had some level of validity, but varied considerably in sensitivity to detect subtle changes in intrinsic cognitive load. Validity was also influenced by the type of task. Eye-measures were found to be the most sensitive followed by the heart and lungs, skin, and brain. However, subjective measures had the highest levels of validity. It is concluded that a combination of physiological and subjective measures is most effective in detecting changes in intrinsic cognitive load.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.