ABSTRACT
Among the prioritized objectives of maintaining psychophysiological safety in extended space missions is the buildup of crew professional reliability. Reliability of operator's performance hinges as on skills level, so personal working style. The purpose of the investigation was to penetrate into the patterns of association between a person-unique individual behavior style and quality and reliability of simulated professional operator's jobs. The investigation was part of the MARS-500 experiment (RF SSC - IBMP RAS, 2010-2011) and employed 2 procedures: the well-established manual vehicle control (Pilot-1) and a new one tasking with planetary surface exploration (VIRTU). Observation of individual work styles resulted in identification of 2 fundamentally different approaches to handling the operator's duties--reliable and innovative. It is noteworthy that a separate participant adhered to one and the same style when coping with either procedure. Also, personality traits predisposing to a concrete behavior were found, which confirms the hypothesis of deep personal nature of operator's work style that reveals itself consistently and isomorphically no matter the type of important job.
Subject(s)
Astronauts/psychology , Professional Competence , Space Flight , Humans , Russia , WorkforceABSTRACT
One of the prioritized objectives of psychophysiological support for long-duration space missions is to strengthen professional reliability of cosmonauts. Operator's reliability is dependent as on skillfulness, so individual work style. PILOT-1 and VIRTU methods were used to study individual psychological characteristics and operator's strategy during project MARS500. The established two individual work styles (IWSs), i.e. control and search, reflect different types of reacting to stress. Combined analysis of these data and results of the "Mirror coordinograph" test showed invariance of IWSs no matter whether a task is complicated or simple. Operators demonstrating the "control" strategy are characterized by high initial mobilization readiness. Their reliability demands great physiological resources (high "cost"). Initial mobilization and physiological "cost" are lower in operators demonstrating the "search" work style. Dependent on the level of mobilization and motivation, their efficacy, in terms of quality and reliability specifically, is unstable in nature.
Subject(s)
Astronauts/psychology , Cues , Professional Competence , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Computer Simulation , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of ResultsABSTRACT
The correlation between operator's job quality and crew work-rest cycle (WRC) aboard the International space station was studied. The experiment involved 10 Russian members of ISS missions 17-24 at the age of 35 to 51 yrs. Mission duration varied from 163 to 200 days, averaging 180 days. Each cosmonaut carried out several "pilot" test sessions. The number of sessions per mission ranged from 4 to 6. The procedure consisted of simulating manual operation of transport vehicle Soyuz on the stages of hang-up, berthing and docking with the ISS. Objective job quality parameters were accuracy of the Soyuz and ISS relative motion control and time for completion which actually characterized work rate. WRC intensity was judged by the data of monitoring at the Moscow Mission Control Center. The results lend support to the dependence of operator's efficiency on WRC. In operators aimed at the highest accuracy this dependence manifested itself in work rate parameters; work accuracy but not rate was more WRC-dependent in operators aimed at doing their job fast. In other words, WRC intensity impacted mostly those job qualities that operator considered to be of secondary importance.
Subject(s)
Astronauts/psychology , Efficiency/physiology , Rest/physiology , Task Performance and Analysis , Weightlessness , Adult , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Russia , Space Flight , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Effect of adaptive biocontrol on efficiency of the operator possessing stable skills in simulating manual control of Soyuz hang-up and berthing to the International space station (ISS) was studied. Job quality was evaluated by the time, energy and precision parameters. The investigation used an ISS computer model and mock-ups of the board operating controls.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Software , Space Simulation/psychology , Spacecraft , Algorithms , Electroencephalography , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychological Tests/statistics & numerical data , Space Simulation/methodsABSTRACT
A complex psychophysiological test battery (ECG, blood pressure, SCL, finger temperature e.t.c.) was applied on two subjects in space. It could be shown that the subjects react under space conditions differently than on earth. The data received could be classified into four types of regulation. The subjects changed this type of regulation during the flight and returned to their former pattern after the flight.
Subject(s)
Psychophysiology , Space Flight , Stress, Psychological , Weightlessness , Aerospace Medicine , Hand Strength , Heart Rate , Humans , Memory, Short-Term , Psychomotor PerformanceABSTRACT
The work centers on the effects of long-term isolation on the quality of job performance of operators. The experiment was carried out with three operators who were to simulate manual redocking of transport vehicle Soyuz-TM to MIR. Data characterizing changes in the parameter at various phases of the experiment and during two 48-hour periods of continuous work were collected and analyzed. Degradation of the quality of job performance was observed at all stages, and particularly during continuous work. Weekly implementation of the task on manual piloting secured adequate maintenance of job skills throughout the experiment.
