The objective of this study was to determine whether there was significant change in cognitive performance by prolonged duration of residence in Antarctic environment. We examined 25th Chinese explorers who spent 12 months of continuous stay at the Great Wall Station in Antarctica. Cognitive measures (tests of short-term recognition, memory searching and spatial cognition) were obtained in the summer (the first month, January 2009), at the preceding (March 2009), the beginning (April 2009) and the middle (June 2010) phases of winter in Antarctica. Repeated-measure ANOVA was conducted, with age controlled as a covariate. The tests of short-term recognition and memory searching which measured shortterm memory showed stable performance over a long-duration of residence in polar environment. Over 82％ explorers showed that either the accuracy or reaction time of the task of space cognition was increased. The results of this study are of great significance to further study of the cognition performance in polar environment.%记忆、空间认知等基本认知功能是影响考察人员能否在南极高寒、单调、孤立、封闭的极端环境下完成复杂任务的基础认知能力.关于极地驻留时间长短对认知功能的影响尚缺乏专门的研究.本文通过计算机记录反应时技术,追踪自度夏到越冬中期,中国南极第25次队长城站越冬人员短时再认、记忆搜索、空间认知能力随驻留时间延长发生的变化.结果表明:在本研究期间,随极地驻留时间延长,队员短时记忆再认能力和记忆搜索能力没有显著变化,82%的队员的空间认知能力有所提高.表明短时记忆和简单空间认知能力在极地环境下保持稳定甚至有所提升.本文研究结果对进一步研究极端环境下人类认知能力的特点有重要意义.
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