Understanding how driver mental states differ between active and autonomous driving is critical for designing safe human-vehicle interfaces. This paper presents the first EEG-based comparison of cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal across the two driving modes. Using data from 31 participants performing identical tasks in both scenarios of three different complexity levels, we analyze temporal patterns, task-complexity effects, and channel-wise activation differences. Our findings show that although both modes evoke similar trends across complexity levels, the intensity of mental states and the underlying neural activation differ substantially, indicating a clear distribution shift between active and autonomous driving. Transfer-learning experiments confirm that models trained on active driving data generalize poorly to autonomous driving and vice versa. We attribute this distribution shift primarily to differences in motor engagement and attentional demands between the two driving modes, which lead to distinct spatial and temporal EEG activation patterns. Although autonomous driving results in lower overall cortical activation, participants continue to exhibit measurable fluctuations in cognitive load, fatigue, valence, and arousal associated with readiness to intervene, task-evoked emotional responses, and monotony-related passive fatigue. These results emphasize the need for scenario-specific data and models when developing next-generation driver monitoring systems for autonomous vehicles.

Abstract--We introduce Zero-Splat T eleAssist, a zero-shot sensor-fusion pipeline that transforms commodity CCTV streams into a shared, 6-DoF world model for multilateral teleopera-tion. By integrating vision-language segmentation, monocular depth, weighted-PCA pose extraction and 3-D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS), T eleAssist provides every operator with real-time global positions and orientations of multiple robots without fiducials or depth sensors in an interaction-centric teleoperation. Teleoperating robots in complex or remote environments is challenging due to limited on-board perception, occlusions, and operator cognitive load. Traditional teleoperation relies on the robot's sensors (cameras, LiDAR, IMU) which often experiences narrow fields of view, occlusions, cumulative drift, collectively increasing the cognitive load on human operators who must maintain situational awareness. Meanwhile, external camera infrastructures (e.g., CCTV) have potential to provide complementary visual coverage and global contextualization, but conventional solutions rely heavily on visual fiducials, such as AprilTags or ArUco markers [5], or motion-capture systems requiring controlled lighting and calibration processes.

Adaptive learning often diagnoses precisely yet intervenes weakly, yielding help that is mistimed or misaligned. This study presents evidence supporting an instructor-governed feedback loop that converts concept-level assessment evidence into vetted micro-interventions. The adaptive learning algorithm contains three safeguards: adequacy as a hard guarantee of gap closure, attention as a budgeted constraint for time and redundancy, and diversity as protection against overfitting to a single resource. We formalize intervention assignment as a binary integer program with constraints for coverage, time, difficulty windows informed by ability estimates, prerequisites encoded by a concept matrix, and anti-redundancy enforced through diversity. Greedy selection serves low-richness and tight-latency regimes, gradient-based relaxation serves rich repositories, and a hybrid method transitions along a richness-latency frontier. In simulation and in an introductory physics deployment with one thousand two hundred four students, both solvers achieved full skill coverage for essentially all learners within bounded watch time. The gradient-based method reduced redundant coverage by approximately twelve percentage points relative to greedy and harmonized difficulty across slates, while greedy delivered comparable adequacy with lower computational cost in scarce settings. Slack variables localized missing content and supported targeted curation, sustaining sufficiency across subgroups. The result is a tractable and auditable controller that closes the diagnostic-pedagogical loop and delivers equitable, load-aware personalization at classroom scale.

Abstract--We propose a new representation learning solution for the classification of cognitive load based on Electroencephalogram (EEG). Our method integrates both time and frequency domains by first passing the raw EEG signals through the convolutional encoder to obtain the time domain representations. Next, we measure the Power Spectral Density (PSD) for all five EEG frequency bands and generate the channel power values as 2D images referred to as multi-spectral topography maps. These multi-spectral topography maps are then fed to a separate encoder to obtain the representations in frequency domain. Our solution employs a multi-domain attention module that maps these domain-specific embeddings onto a shared embedding space to emphasize more on important inter-domain relationships to enhance the representations for cognitive load classification. Additionally, we incorporate an orthogonal projection constraint during the training of our method to effectively increase the inter-class distances while improving intra-class clustering. This enhancement allows efficient discrimination between different cognitive states and aids in better grouping of similar states within the feature space. Our results demonstrate the superiority of our multi-domain approach over the traditional single-domain techniques. Moreover, we conduct ablation and sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of various components of our method. Finally, robustness experiments on different amounts of added noise demonstrate the stability of our method compared to other state-of-the-art solutions. LECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (EEG) serves as a non-invasive method for measuring the electrical activities of the brain by placing electrodes on the scalp and forehead [1]. Numerous studies have highlighted various factors influencing brain activity [2], including cognitive load and affect [3], [4]. As a result, EEG signals can be recorded and leveraged in conjunction with machine learning and deep learning techniques for detecting and quantifying cognitive load [5] and emotions [6]. Cognitive load is defined as the mental workload required to perform a task [7].

Enabling LLMs to effectively operate long-horizon task which requires long-term planning and multiple interactions is essential for open-world autonomy. Conventional methods adopt planning with actions where a executable action list would be provided as reference. However, this action representation choice would be impractical when the environment action space is combinatorial exploded (e.g., open-ended real world). This naturally leads to a question: As environmental action space scales, what is the optimal action representation for long-horizon agents? In this paper, we systematically study the effectiveness of two different action representations. The first one is conventional planning with actions (PwA) which is predominantly adopted for its effectiveness on existing benchmarks. The other one is planning with schemas (PwS) which instantiate an action schema into action lists (e.g., "move [OBJ] to [OBJ]" -> "move apple to desk") to ensure concise action space and reliable scalability. This alternative is motivated by its alignment with human cognition and its compliance with environment-imposed action format restriction. We propose cognitive bandwidth perspective as a conceptual framework to qualitatively understand the differences between these two action representations and empirically observe a representation-choice inflection point between ALFWorld (~35 actions) and SciWorld (~500 actions), which serve as evidence of the need for scalable representations. We further conduct controlled experiments to study how the location of this inflection point interacts with different model capacities: stronger planning proficiency shifts the inflection rightward, whereas better schema instantiation shifts it leftward. Finally, noting the suboptimal performance of PwS agents, we provide an actionable guide for building more capable PwS agents for better scalable autonomy.

Abstract-- Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is a key focus of Industry 5.0, aiming to enhance worker productivity while ensuring well-being. The ability to perceive human psycho-physical states, such as stress and cognitive load, is crucial for adaptive and human-aware robotics. This paper introduces MultiPhysio-HRC, a multimodal dataset containing physiological, audio, and facial data collected during real-world HRC scenarios. The dataset includes electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA), respiration (RESP), electromyography (EMG), voice recordings, and facial action units. The dataset integrates controlled cognitive tasks, immersive virtual reality experiences, and industrial disassembly activities performed manually and with robotic assistance, to capture a holistic view of the participants' mental states. Rich ground truth annotations were obtained using validated psychological self-assessment questionnaires. Baseline models were evaluated for stress and cognitive load classification, demonstrating the dataset's potential for affective computing and human-aware robotics research. MultiPhysio-HRC is publicly available to support research in human-centered automation, workplace well-being, and intelligent robotic systems.

The scaling of Large Language Models (LLMs) has exposed a critical gap between their performance on static benchmarks and their fragility in dynamic, information-rich environments. While models excel at isolated tasks, the computational limits that govern their reasoning under cognitive load remain poorly understood. In this work, we introduce a formal theory of computational cognitive load, positing that extraneous, task-irrelevant information (Context Saturation) and interference from task-switching (Attentional Residue) are key mechanisms that degrade performance. We designed the Interleaved Cognitive Evaluation (ICE), a deconfounded benchmark to systematically manipulate these load factors on challenging multi-hop reasoning tasks. A comprehensive study (N = 10 replications per item across 200 questions) revealed significant performance variations across five instruction-tuned models. Smaller open-source architectures (Llama-3-8B-Instruct, Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2) exhibited baseline brittleness, achieving 0% accuracy (SEM = 0.0) across all conditions, including clean controls, on this high-intrinsic-load task. In contrast, Gemini-2.0-Flash-001 showed partial resilience, achieving 85% accuracy in control conditions, with a statistically significant degradation under context saturation ($β= -0.003$ per % load, $p < 0.001$). These findings provide preliminary evidence that cognitive load is a key contributor to reasoning failures, supporting theories of hallucination-as-guessing under uncertainty. We conclude that dynamic, cognitive-aware stress testing, as exemplified by the ICE benchmark, is essential for evaluating the true resilience and safety of advanced AI systems.

Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit a notable performance ceiling on complex, multi-faceted tasks, as they often fail to integrate diverse information or adhere to multiple constraints. We posit that such limitation arises when the demands of a task exceed the LLM's effective cognitive load capacity. This interpretation draws a strong analogy to Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) in cognitive science, which explains similar performance boundaries in the human mind, and is further supported by emerging evidence that reveals LLMs have bounded working memory characteristics. Building upon this CLT-grounded understanding, we introduce CoThinker, a novel LLM-based multi-agent framework designed to mitigate cognitive overload and enhance collaborative problem-solving abilities. CoThinker operationalizes CLT principles by distributing intrinsic cognitive load through agent specialization and managing transactional load via structured communication and a collective working memory. We empirically validate CoThinker on complex problem-solving tasks and fabricated high cognitive load scenarios, demonstrating improvements over existing multi-agent baselines in solution quality and efficiency. Our analysis reveals characteristic interaction patterns, providing insights into the emergence of collective cognition and effective load management, thus offering a principled approach to overcoming LLM performance ceilings.

Current benchmarks for long-context reasoning in Large Language Models (LLMs) often blur critical factors like intrinsic task complexity, distractor interference, and task length. To enable more precise failure analysis, we introduce CogniLoad, a novel synthetic benchmark grounded in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). CogniLoad generates natural-language logic puzzles with independently tunable parameters that reflect CLT's core dimensions: intrinsic difficulty ($d$) controls intrinsic load; distractor-to-signal ratio ($ρ$) regulates extraneous load; and task length ($N$) serves as an operational proxy for conditions demanding germane load. Evaluating 22 SotA reasoning LLMs, CogniLoad reveals distinct performance sensitivities, identifying task length as a dominant constraint and uncovering varied tolerances to intrinsic complexity and U-shaped responses to distractor ratios. By offering systematic, factorial control over these cognitive load dimensions, CogniLoad provides a reproducible, scalable, and diagnostically rich tool for dissecting LLM reasoning limitations and guiding future model development.

Abstract--Large Language Models are transforming software engineering, yet prompt management in practice remains ad hoc, hindering reliability, reuse, and integration into industrial workflows. We present Prompt-with-Me, a practical solution for structured prompt management embedded directly in the development environment. The system automatically classifies prompts using a four-dimensional taxonomy encompassing intent, author role, software development lifecycle stage, and prompt type. T o enhance prompt reuse and quality, Prompt-with-Me suggests language refinements, masks sensitive information, and extracts reusable templates from a developer's prompt library. Our taxonomy study of 1,108 real-world prompts demonstrates that modern LLMs can accurately classify software engineering prompts. Furthermore, our user study with 11 participants shows strong developer acceptance, with high usability (Mean SUS=73), low cognitive load (Mean NASA-TLX=21), and reported gains in prompt quality and efficiency through reduced repetitive effort. Lastly, we offer actionable insights for building the next generation of prompt management and maintenance tools for software engineering workflows. Large Language Models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 and Claude are rapidly transforming modern software engineering (SE). Tools powered by these models have moved from experimental prototypes to integral components of everyday development workflows. For instance, industry reports on GitHub Copilot, a GPT-powered AI pair programmer, show that developers using the tool complete coding tasks up to 55% faster, while 85% report increased confidence in their code quality [1]. These numbers highlight not only the efficiency gains brought by LLMs but also their growing influence on developer experience and software quality. Despite the transformative role of LLMs in software engineering, the primary interface for human-LLM interaction, the prompt, remains surprisingly informal. Prompts are typically written ad hoc, often with fragmented grammar or inconsistent wording, even though minor phrasing changes can significantly alter model behavior [2]. Unlike source code, prompts are rarely versioned, reviewed, or maintained across the software development lifecycle, leaving critical interactions with LLMs effectively unmanaged.