A Vessel Class Comparison of Physiological, Affective State and Psychomotor Performance Changes in Men at Sea

摘要

A field study was conducted to compare the influence of vessel motions, characteristic to a 89' Navy experimental Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) vessel, a 95' Coast Guard Patrol Boat and a 378' Coast Guard High Endurance Cutter, upon motion sickness incidence and severity, physiological indices of stress, affective state and psychomotor performance in male Coast Guardsmen. Psychometer performance (Navigation Plotting, Complex Counting, Code Substitution, Spoke Test, Time Estimation and Critical Tracking), motion sickness symptomatology, urine output and specific gravity, stress hormone excretion, heart and sweat rate, and subject mood were repeatedly sampled for eight hours a day during three control days in four-hour octagonal patterns about a wave measurement buoy. All vessels were instrumented with accelerometers to continuously record vertical, lateral and longitudinal accelerations within the test compartments located below decks amidships and roll, pitch and heave motions at the vessel centers of gravity.