Triangulating front end engineering design activities with physiology data and psychological preferences

This paper presents the experimental foundation, methodology, and pilot data from an exploratory triangulation of front end engineering design activities with physiology data and psychological preferences. The aim is to gain more measurement control over engineering design activities by "opening the black box" of the designer's cognitive state (prevalent problem solving style and momentary cognitive load measured by means of physiology data) as he/she engages in different design activities (divergent engineering activity vs. convergent engineering activity). Ultimately, we intend to contribute to the design community's pressing need for design performance metrics that will allow the comparison of various engineering design activities. The aim is to understand and model the relationships between engineering design behavior (actual engineering activity), problem solving preference (individual psychological predisposition), and real-time physiological data of engineers (EEG, ECG, and other physiological telemetry data).