Task-specific physiological signatures of perceptual and cognitive workload under cockpit noise: implications for pilot state monitoring and training

Cockpit noise is a common operational stressor that can affect pilots' mental workload and performance. This study examined whether multimodal physiological measures could show task-demand-dependent physiological signatures under cockpit-noise interference, and whether these responses are moderated by flight experience. Eighty-five valid participants from an initial sample of 100 pilots performed a Stroop task and a logical reasoning task under no-noise and 85-90 dB(A) noise conditions. Eye-tracking measures and ECG-derived heart rate were recorded. Noise exposure was associated with increased pupil size and heart rate across tasks. Task-specific patterns emerged: fixation duration increased mainly during the Stroop task, whereas the reasoning task showed strong experience-by-noise interactions in fixation dynamics and pupil size. These findings indicate that combining oculometric and cardiac measures may support adaptive cockpit design, training calibration, and noise-resilient workload monitoring in safety-critical systems.