Fig. 9

Pupillometry revealed a significant increase in cognitive effort, driven not only by the cognitive engagement required for the TMT but also by the mechanical instability introduced by the wobble board. Violin plots illustrate the distribution of mean pupil diameter across the five-minute trial duration under the four experimental conditions for all participants. Each violin plot’s right and left halves depict the pupil diameter for the right and left eye, respectively. Horizontal bars indicate group mean, and white circles indicate group median (N = 96; 48 participants × 2 trials/participant). ***p < 0.001.