Effect of Heat and Chemical Protective Clothing on the Ability of a Group of Female Soldiers to Sustain Performance of Military Cognitive Tasks

摘要

The authors previously have found that chemical protective clothing seriously degraded the performance of sedentary male soldiers doing sustained mental work in the heat. Here in an identical study, the authors examine the performance of female soldiers in protective clothing. To our knowledge, this is the only controlled study of its kind with women. Eighteen female soldiers trained for two weeks on cognitive tasks resembling those performed by fire direction center, forward observer and communications personnel. Then, they performed the tasks for seven-hour periods on four successive days in hot (91 F., 61% RH) and normal (55 F., 35% RH) or (70 F., 35% RH) with and without chemical protective clothing.