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Crewmember performance before, during, and after spaceflight.
Kelly, T. H., Hienz, R. D., Zarcone, T. J., Wurster, R. M., & Brady, J. V.
(2005).
Crewmember performance before, during, and after spaceflight.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 84, 227-241.
The development of technologies for monitoring the welfare of crewmembers is a
critical requirement for extended spaceflight. Behavior analytic methodologies
provide a framework for studying the performance of individuals and groups, and
brief computerized tests have been used successfully to examine the impairing
effects of sleep, drug, and nutrition manipulations on human behavior. The
purpose of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility and sensitivity of
repeated performance testing during spaceflight. Four National Aeronautics and
Space Administration crewmembers were trained to complete computerized
questionnaires and performance tasks at repeated regular intervals before and
after a 10-day shuttle mission and at times that interfered minimally with other
mission activities during spaceflight. Two types of performance, Digit-Symbol
Substitution trial completion rates and response times during the most complex
Number Recognition trials, were altered slightly during spaceflight. All other
dimensions of the performance tasks remained essentially unchanged over the
course of the study. Verbal ratings of Fatigue increased slightly during
spaceflight and decreased during the postflight test sessions. Arousal ratings
increased during spaceflight and decreased postflight. No other consistent
changes in rating-scale measures were observed over the course of the study.
Crewmembers completed all mission requirements in an efficient manner with no
indication of clinically significant behavioral impairment during the 10-day
spaceflight. These results support the feasibility and utility of computerized
task performances and questionnaire rating scales for repeated measurement of
behavior during spaceflight.
Key words: NASA, spaceflight, operant behavior, performance measures,
self-report measures, humans