Understanding and quantifying driver workload is essential for designing safe and effective human–vehicle interaction systems, especially in complex, multi-task driving contexts. We use the Visual–Auditory–Cognitive–Psychomotor (VACP) paradigm as a structured framework for decomposing driver workload and evaluating its physiological validity using eye gaze measures. Results showed a clear correspondence between increased VACP-defined workload and pupil dilation where pronounced pupil responses occurred during high-demand braking and dialogue events involving concurrent workload components, while smaller but consistent responses were observed for discrete secondary tasks such as DRT and dialogue interactions.
@inproceedings{aygunscheutz26ahfe,
title={Comprehensive Modeling and Evaluation of Workload in Driving Simulation Using the VACP Paradigm},
author={Ayca Aygun and Matthias Scheutz},
year={2026},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE)},
url={https://hrilab.tufts.edu/publications/aygunscheutz26ahfe.pdf}
}