Abstract
The relationship of several traditional and two new physiological measures to performance was examined. The physiological measures included heart and respiration periods, heart rate variability, skin conductance, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, Cw, V, and a modified Ā. Cw and V were derived from cross-spectral analysis of heart period and respiration and represent a new quantitative approach to psychophysiological measurement. The performance estimates were the number, mean latency, and latency variability of correct and incorrect responses, and percent of correct responses that occurred during the last half of a four-minute delayed-digit cancellation task. All physiological performance measures were recorded over a 20-minute period from 70 military recruits. Skin conductance, heart periods, respiration, and measures derived from these were based on simultaneous two-minute recordings. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated between each performance and physiological measure. Heart and respiration periods, Ā, Cw, and diastolic blood pressure were each reliably related to several performance estimates.
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