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.