Effects of whole body vibration and backrest angle on perceived mental workload and performance

Authors

  • Hamed Jalilian Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Moallem Street, Roohallah Square, P.O. Box: 3715614566, Qom, Iran, Fax: +982537839932; E-mail: jalilianh@hotmail.com; Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5423-9442
  • Omid Gorjizadeh Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9776-4415
  • Kamran Najafi Student Research Committee, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6956-5868
  • Mohsen Falahati Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Saveh University of Medical Sciences, Saveh, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4878-496X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2020-2699

Keywords:

whole body vibration, backrest angle, mental workload, performance, mental task

Abstract

Mental Workload (MWL) and human performance are widely contributing concepts in human factors. The objective of the current study is to investigate the perceived MWL and human performance during whole-body vibration (WBV) exposure while seated at different backrest angles. Nineteen healthy male participants completed both the NASA-TLX and rating scale mental effort (RSME) after performing two difficulty levels of computerized dual tasks. The participants’ performance was measured in these conditions while seated with a backrest angle of 100 and 120 degrees and exposed to WBV (intensity: 0.5 m/s2; frequency 3-20 Hz) for 5 minutes. No significant effect on performance or perceived MWL (p<0.05) was found when changes were made to the backrest angles. Exposure to WBV under two backrest angles increased mental demand (p=0.04), effort (p=0.03) and frustration (p=0.03) and negatively affected human performance (p<0.05). The present study showed that exposure to WBV could be an important variable for designing work environments that require a high level of performance and mental demand while seated. However, the findings exhibited no association between inclining backrest angle and human performance or perceived MWL.

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Published

2021-02-18

How to Cite

Jalilian, H., Gorjizadeh, O., Najafi, K., & Falahati, M. (2021). Effects of whole body vibration and backrest angle on perceived mental workload and performance. EXCLI Journal, 20, 400–411. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2020-2699

Issue

Vol. 20 (2021)

Section

Original articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Hamed Jalilian, Omid Gorjizadeh, Kamran Najafi, Mohsen Falahati

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