Sleep Deprivation Effects on Cognitive Flexibility in Dynamic Decision Making Environments
Abstract
Sleep loss, which is common in military operations, causes significant deficits in situational awareness and decision making.We showed that these critical performance deficits are caused by changes in attentional control in fast-paced, dynamically changing circumstances. There is currently no effective method to protect against these impairments in operational performance. In this project, we provide a foundation for the development of a training program that will address this issue by improving cognitive flexibility. In a laboratory-based study currently underway, healthy young adults are assigned to a sleep deprivation condition or to a control condition. The subjects are tested on performance tasks, specifically developed for this study in year 1 of the project, while well-rested and after 38 hours of sleep deprivation. A subset of the subjects assigned to the sleep deprivation condition participate in cognitive flexibility training. Our objective is to show that the cognitive flexibility training will help people to recover performance more quickly following unexpected changes of circumstances. By developing this novel method to increase resilience against operational performance impairment, our project will help to improve the safety and success of US military missions around the globe. The research will also benefit the millions of Americans who are frequently deprived of sleep due to medical conditions and/or professional demands.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1050258
Entities
People
- Hans P A Van Dongen
Organizations
- Washington State University