Protecting Soldiers: Warning Presentation and Retention Under Stress in a Virtual Military Task

摘要

In the modern combat environment, information superiority and superior information systems are paramount to operational success. Considerable efforts are applied to task gathering, collating, synthesizing, and conveying this vital information. The same level of energy must be brought to bear in devising innovative and effective methods for communicating this information to the soldier. The modality in which the warning information is presented is imperative in this process in that it differentially influences behavioral response, especially when tasks are either learned or subsequently performed in stressful circumstances. The current work examines the effects of cross modality of warning presentation and retention in a dual task paradigm in a simulated environment with various task induced stress levels. Consistent with the Hancock and Warm model of stress and attention, it was found that when task demand is relatively low, the modality of presentation is of less importance and participants are able to comply. When task demand is relatively high, the modality of presentation was critical and played a significant role in compliance behavior. Additionally, it was found that participants were significantly less likely to comply in the verbal modality across all levels of working memory demand than in either the pictorial or written modalities.