Effects of Anxiety on Performance and Workload in an Air Defense Task

Abstract

Air battle management (ABM) operations place high demands on operator attention; operator teams are required to manage an airspace cluttered with aircraft, identify changes in amity of entities and respond appropriately to these aircraft. Awareness of the severe consequence of errors in detection and the risk of physical harm may contribute to operator stress and anxiety. Operators high in trait anxiety might then be vulnerable to adverse consequences including excessive stress, workload and performance impairment. In addition, anxiety research shows a selective attention bias to threat-related information which may impact operator strategy. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of trait and state anxiety in dyads performing a simulated ABM task. In general, dyads high in trait anxiety appeared to cope fairly effectively with task demands, and performed better on defensive aspects of the ABM task. The role of trait anxiety in team composition is briefly discussed.