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Abstract

The U. S. Army Research Laboratory's stress research and cognitive readiness program focuses on developing methods that reliably measure stress and assess the effects of stress on performance and cognitive processing. The evaluation of changes in cognitive processing related to individual stress levels enhances the effectiveness of this area of research. This paper describes a Cognitive Performance Assessment for Stress and Endurance (CPASE), a battery of tests representing a range of skills that are sensitive indicators of human performance in stressful environments: memory recall, logical reasoning, working memory, and spatial manipulation. These tasks were selected through a literature search for functions that are sensitive to the effects of stress and could be generalized to higher level cognitive functioning. The focus was to develop a non intrusive battery that was amenable to testing a large group of participants in a field setting in a short amount of time. This battery has been successfully used to evaluate soldier performance during sleep deprivation (Fatkin, Knapik, Patton, Mullins, Treadwell, & Swann, 2000) and in the evaluation of military equipment (Glumm, Branscome, Patton, Mullins, & Burton, 1999).

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