The Relationship between Cognitive Performance and Stress Perceptions in Military Operations

Abstract

The study reported here is part of a continuing research program investigating the links between psychological stress responses and performance in a variety of settings. A battery of psychological and cognitive measures designed to assess stress perceptions, coping resources, and cognitive performance was administered at selected times in association with the daily test activities of smoke and decontamination platoon operations. During testing soldiers wore the full chemical protective ensemble including mask (MOPP IV). Canonical correlation analyses were computed to examine the relationship between the stress perception measures (predictor variables) and cognitive performance measures (outcome variables). The direction of the results indicates that as subjects experience an increase in their perception of the situation as stressful their corresponding performance declines. These results are consistent with the literature and indicate that the stress perception measures and performance measures used in this study are sensitive indicators of stress.

Don't Shoot Me: Potential Consequences of Force-on-Force Training Modulate the Human Stress Response

“…In fact, FoF-HR performance improvements were accompanied by a nonsignificantly heightened SNS response, whereas photorealistic target performance improvements were accompanied by a significantly decreasing SNS response. These findings are congruent with the Yerkes-Dodson law (42) and the more recent, dynamic model of stress and sustained attention (12), which state that there is an optimal arousal level for maximum performance, and once that optimal level of arousal or stress has been exceeded, performance then deteriorates (27). The biological rationale behind such a response is to enhance the likelihood of host survival; just as Callaway and Thompson (6) posited, any heightened sympathetic arousal will increase the input threshold of incoming stimuli to prevent sympathetic discharge from running amok.…”

Cognitive Behaviors for Computer Generated Forces

“…Similarly, Mullins, Fatkin, Modrow, and Rice (1995) found that participants with less experience reported higher ratings of overall stress. Several other studies have documented the benefits of experience for cognitive performance under stress in NDM situations (Kirschenbaum, 1992;Stokes, 1995;Klein, Calderwood, & ClintonCirocco, 1996;Klein & Calderwood, 1990) .…”