Validation of stimulus for EEG signal based cognitive load analysis

Cognitive load is defined as the mental workload imparted on brain while doing a task. The amount of cognitive load experienced depends on individual's ability of perception, assimilation and response to a task. Real-time measurement of the level of cognitive load using low cost Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal enables understanding of personal cognitive skills. In this paper, we propose a methodology of selecting a reference task whose bio-markers closely match with a given task while probing different cognitive abilities. The benefit of this approach is to have a limited set of training models for the reference tasks related to various cognitive categories and use the same for a variety of unknown tasks. Experiment is performed for two levels of cognitive load with three different tasks namely Stroop color task, logical reasoning task and usage of on-screen keyboards. The training models of the reference tasks, selected by cluster analysis of low and high cognitive levels are used to evaluate an unknown task. Experimental results indicate that the Stroop is a better reference for On-Screen keyboard test compared to the Logical reasoning test. Support vector machine (SVM) and principal component analysis (PCA) followed by SVM (PCA-SVM) are used as the classifiers for the testing.