Remotely-controlled technologies are no longer limited to military applications, such as unmanned military airborne weapons or explosive diffuser robots. Nowadays we can see more and more of remotely controlled devices used as medical equipment, toys, and so forth. One of the most recent areas of interest is robotic telepresence, also known as Mobile Robot Presence (MRP), which provides the ability to interact socially and professionally with other people and even objects in remote locations. One of the known issues with using remotely-controlled devices is the cognitive overload which their operators (pilots) experience and MRP pilots are no exception. However, despite vast research on different ways to address this in military or medical scenarios, little has been done regarding MRPs. This thesis study aims to make a contribution in closing that gap by suggesting a method, developing a prototype implementing it; then conducting an empirical assessment of the method and the prototype as a part of a broader study on MRP, supported by Swedish Research Council. I have suggested a method comprised of a Secondary-task (ST) method and Subjective Rating Scales (SRS), in which the latter act as an evaluation method for the former. Both of them were used in an overarching study in search for the best control device amongst four chosen devices. I collected and analyzed secondary task performance data (e.g. response time, error rates), subjective user ratings, explicit rankings, and observations recordings. My analysis of the collected data shows that using a monitoring and response face recognition secondary task is a plausible method for the assessment of MRP pilot’s cognitive load.

In recent years, research on embodied cognition has inspired a number of studies on multimedia learning and instructional psychology. However, in contrast to traditional research on education and multimedia learning, studies on embodied learning (i.e., focusing on bodily action and perception in the context of education) in some cases pose new problems for the measurement of cognitive load. This review provides an overview over recent studies on embodied learning in which cognitive load was measured using surveys, behavioral data, or physiological measures. The different methods are assessed in terms of their success in finding differences of cognitive load in embodied learning scenarios. At the same time, we highlight the most important challenges for researchers aiming to include these measures into their study designs. The main issues we identified are: (1) Subjective measures must be appropriately phrased to be useful for embodied learning; (2) recent findings indicate potentials as well as problematic aspects of dual-task measures; (3) the use of physiological measures offers great potential, but may require mobile equipment in the context of embodied scenarios; (4) meta-cognitive measures can be useful extensions of cognitive load measurement for embodied learning.