Assessing Gender Differences and Norm Data on a Cognitive Performance Measure

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

Hancock

2003

Self Cite

Performance decrements have frequently been reported in combat but it has been difficult to demonstrate the specific causal source of cognitive degradation sutficient to disrupt performance during military operations. In the present study, seventeen inhtiymen were assessed during both a oneweek simulated combat exercise and a p r a w n assault. Significant change did not occur during the one week exercise, however simple reaction time did increase following the assault. One planned field assessment occurred at the moment following a potentially serious medical event. A soldier perceived that he was experiencing heatstroke but medical evaluation indicated that he was still "fit for duty". Cognitive evaluation of his failing state was characterized by slow Simple Response Time and rapid and inaccurate responding on more complex response tasks. Fortunately, the soldier could return to duty but his scores slowly recovered, such that he returned to baseline levels two days later. The present infantry operational environment did not produce significant-information processing change in inhtrymen. However, significant performance cognitive decrements followed the specific acute event of assault that was perceived as life-threatening. As we demonstrate, increased reaction time after the assault is consistent with increased fatigue following an extended period in the infantry operating environment.

Section: Baseline Performancesupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Baseline Performancesupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Field Assessment of Cognitive Performance under Stress

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

Hancock

2003

Self Cite

“…Accuracy was greater than 90% during the first trial and remained at that level during all four trials. Consistent with previous examinations of ANAM and ARES during initial testing (Benedetto, Harris, & Goernert, 1995;Harris, Hancock, & Morgan, 2005), response time improved between trials one and four, with the rate of improvement decreasing with the number of trials and performance stabilizing on trial four.…”

Section: Ares-i Evaluationsupporting

confidence: 86%

Development of an Operational Setting Specific Field Cognitive Assessment Procedure

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

Reeves

Elsmore

et al. 2006

Self Cite

The assessment of dynamic cognitive abilities during actual field operations by professional personnel represents a significant challenge to the behavioral scientist. Here, we present a short-duration, portable cognitive assessment instrument which seeks to address such issues. Any such instrument with poor face validity is unlikely to receive the required attention and cooperation of operational personnel. Also, if supervisors see little relationship between the assessment procedure and the actual operational tasks they are unlikely to use outcome results anyway. This work summarizes our customization of an established cognitive assessment battery, which is composed of operationally relevant tasks for field assessment. Our present results suggest equivalent user acceptance and comparable assessment capacity as the longer duration, currently established battery.

“…Benedetto, Harris, and Goernert (1995) found that for repeated ANAM administration, scores improved rapidly during the first three administrations, after which time there were only small improvements. A classroom training session was included to maximize the effect of the present training regime.…”

Section: Assessment Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Information Processing Changes Following Extended Stress

Hancock

2005

Military Psychology

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The psychological states and cognitive performance capacities of military participants were assessed prior to and following 1 week of field training at a Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School. The effect of this exposure resulted in significant cognitive performance deterioration and an increase in reported levels of subjective discomfort. Simple Reaction Time increased, and the capacity to perform information manipulation tasks such as Spatial Processing and Code Substitution deteriorated. Logical Reasoning proved the most susceptible of all tasks to the effects of the weeklong stressful exposure. These various effects were evident only in interaction with time on task. In the testing session following the stressful field exposure, participants' immediate response was at a level similar to their pretraining baseline. However, unlike their preexposure session, performance in the later condition declined as the session progressed. This pattern suggests that immediately following the stress exposure, participants are able to sustain their normal performance but only for a limited period of time. Because the duration of any one single task, each being less than 1 min, was very brief, the results indicated that this time-based degradation was fairly rapid. Overall results indicate, therefore, that for stress assessment, Simple Reaction Time task may be usefully and pragmatically diagnostic of stress-induced deterioration. Our results further indicate that cognitive performance decrements are associated with subjective report of decreased vigor and increased difficulty in concentrating. In addressing the issue of sustained performance capacity and resilience following extended stress exposure, we seek to facilitate one goal-a modern objective force that is responsive to rapid changes in mission profile and operations. These findings indicate that crucial informationprocessing response measures help to achieve this aim.