ABSTRACT
Fifty-two Indian military parachutist trainees were studied throughout the training period to investigate effects of stress in parachutist training on performance efficiency. Stress attributable to fear, anxiety, and apprehension about the inherent risk of paratrooping was studied along with physiological and biochemical changes. An attempt is made to correlate personality traits with performance efficiency. In cognitive and psychomotor tests, maximum deterioration was seen before the tower jump and aircraft jump. The deterioration was correlated with the level of anxiety and urinary catecholamine levels. Inter-correlations between anxiety, catecholamine, and blood pressure were positive, and the level of anxiety was seen to be affecting the quality of performance adversely.
Subject(s)
Aviation , Military Personnel/psychology , Personality , Task Performance and Analysis , Adult , Cognition , Humans , India , Male , Stress, PsychologicalSubject(s)
Acclimatization/drug effects , Phosphates/pharmacology , 2,3-Diphosphoglycerate , Adult , Altitude , Diphosphoglyceric Acids/blood , Humans , Male , Oxygen/bloodSubject(s)
Mental Processes , Stress, Physiological/physiopathology , Adult , Association Learning , Cold Temperature , Humans , India , Memory , ThinkingSubject(s)
Attention , Dehydration/psychology , Heat Exhaustion/psychology , Psychomotor Performance , Adult , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Twenty five subjects acclimatised to heat artificially were exposed to "basic effective temperatures" (BET) of 25.0 degrees, 29.6 degrees, 32.2 degrees, 33.3 degrees and 35.0 degrees C BET under conditions of both humid and dry heat. The object of the investigation was to ascertain the nature of effects of varying degrees of heat stress on mental alertness, associative learning, reasoning ability and dual-performance efficiency. A further aim was to determine the temperature levels at which impairment of psychological functions was severe enough to be of practical concern. The duration of each exposure was four hours, during which subjects performed physical exercise followed by rest every 30 min. It was found that all the psychological functions tested were adversely affected under extreme heat, and that a significant drop in various psychological functions was seen at effective temperatures of 32.2 degrees C and 33.3 degrees C in hot-humid and hot-dry conditions respectively. It is concluded that at the same effective temperatures the magnitude of the overall effect on psychological functions under humid conditions is relatively greater than that under dry conditions.
