Mental workload (MWL) can affect human performance and is considered critical in the design and evaluation of complex human-machine systems. While numerous physiological measures are used to assess MWL, there appears no consensus on their validity as effective agents of MWL. This study was conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the use of physiological measures of MWL and to synthesize empirical evidence on the validity of the measures to discriminate changes in MWL. A systematical literature search was conducted with four electronic databases for empirical studies measuring MWL with physiological measures. Ninety-one studies were included for analysis. We identified 78 physiological measures, which were distributed in cardiovascular, eye movement, electroencephalogram (EEG), respiration, electromyogram (EMG) and skin categories. Cardiovascular, eye movement and EEG measures were the most widely used across varied research domains, with 76%, 66%, and 71% of times reported a significant association with MWL, respectively. While most physiological measures were found to be able to discriminate changes in MWL, they were not universally valid in all task scenarios. The use of physiological measures and their validity for MWL assessment also varied across different research domains. Our study offers insights into the understanding and selection of appropriate physiological measures for MWL assessment in varied human-machine systems.

Mobile medical platforms (MMPs) can make medical services more accessible and effective. However, the patient-centered factors that influence patients’ acceptance of MMPs are not well understood. Our study examined the factors affecting patients’ acceptance of MMPs by integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the technology acceptance model (TAM), and three patient-centered factors (i.e., perceived convenience, perceived credibility, and perceived privacy risk). Three hundred and eighty-nine Chinese respondents were recruited in this study and completed a self-administered online questionnaire that included items adapted from validated measurement scales. The partial least squares structural equation modeling results revealed that perceived privacy risk, perceived credibility, and perceived ease of use directly determined the perceived usefulness of an MMP. Perceived convenience, perceived credibility, and perceived usefulness significantly affected the patients’ attitudes toward MMPs. Perceived usefulness, attitude, perceived privacy risk, and perceived behavioral control were important determinants of the patients’ behavioral intentions to use MMPs. Behavioral intention and perceived behavioral control significantly influenced perceived effective use. Perceived credibility and perceived ease of use significantly affected perceived convenience. However, social influence had no significant effect on attitude and behavioral intention. The study provides important theoretical and practical implications, which could help practitioners enhance the patients’ use of MMPs for their healthcare activities.

Music teacher attrition represents a serious educational concern, especially among preservice music teachers due to their lack of sufficient occupational identity and commitment. However, factors influencing their decisions on remaining in/leaving the profession are not well understood. This study proposed and empirically tested a psychological decision model by integrating the theory of planned behaviour and motivation theory to explain preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession. Questionnaires were administrated to 218 preservice music teachers from vocational colleges in China. The results showed that the integrated model could explain 78% of the variance in behavioural intention. Attitude, subjective norm and intrinsic motivation were identified as significant antecedents for preservice music teachers’ intention to remain in the profession, while perceived behavioural control and extrinsic motivation exerted indirect impacts on behavioural intention through mediating roles of intrinsic motivation and attitude. The findings provide important implications for the design of effective policies and strategies to attract and keep preservice music teachers in the profession.

With the dramatic increase in motorization, road traffic crashes have become the leading cause of death in China. To reduce the losses associated with road safety problems, it is important to understand the risk factors contributing to the high crash rate among Chinese drivers. This study investigated how driving anger and aberrant driving behaviors are related to crash risk by proposing and testing one mediated model. In this model, the effects of driving anger on road crash risk were mediated by aberrant driving behaviors. However, unlike previous studies, instead of using the overall scale scores, the subscales of driving anger and aberrant driving behaviors were used to establish the mediated model in this study. To test the validity of this model, an Internet-based questionnaire, which included various measures of driving anger, aberrant driving, and road crash history, was completed by a sample of 1974 Chinese drivers. The results showed that the model fitted the data very well and aberrant driving behaviors fully mediated the effects of driving anger on road crash risk. Findings from the present study are useful for the development of countermeasures to reduce road traffic crashes in China.