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Objective: To assess the sensitivity of two physiological measures for discriminating between levels of cognitive demand under driving conditions across different age groups.

Background: Previous driving research presents a mixed picture concerning the sensitivity of physiological measures for differentiating tasks with presumed differences in mental workload.

Method: A total of 108 relatively healthy drivers balanced by gender and across three age groups (20–29, 40–49, 60–69) engaged in three difficulty levels of an auditory presentation–verbal response working memory task.

Results: Heart rate and skin conductance level (SCL) both increased in a statistically significant fashion with each incremental increase in cognitive demand, whereas driving performance measures did not provide incremental discrimination. SCL was lower in the 40s and 60s age groups; however, the pattern of incremental increase with …