Reliability Assessment of Two Militarily Relevant Occupational Physical Performance Tests

摘要

Quantifying performance of physical tasks is important for: (1) evaluating employees in physically demanding occupations and (2) experiments in which associations between basic abilities and performance of more complex tasks are explored. in the military manual material handling of heavy loads and battlefield maneuvers are standard occupational tasks. Tests that quantify performance of such tasks must be reliable, as highly variable results have little meaning (Harman and Pandoft 2000). Because motor learning (a problem- solving process whereby techniques are changed and perfected from repetition to repetition Bernstein, 1967) and strategy development are normally associated with the practice of physical tests, a test may have to be repeated a number of times to obtain reliable data (Hopkins et al., 2001; Jackson et al., 2001). The goal of administering test practice sessions is to enable the test subjects (or workers) to become proficient enough so that the test results are reliable and may then be used as a credible measure of their physical performance.