Think before You Shoot: The Relationship between Cognition and Marksmanship

Abstract

In recent years, psychologists have begun to explore the relationship between cognition and sport performance, specifically the role of mental imagery in performance. One relatively unexplored learned skill, however, is marksmanship. The objectives of this exploratory study were 1) to document the relationship between cognitive processes and marksmanship performance and 2) to test the statistical validity of a friend/foe detection task as a measure of decision making (DM). Ninety US Army active duty Soldiers and Reservists completed a cognitive test battery including measures of DM, the standard marksmanship qualifying task, and a friend/foe detection task. A correlational analysis revealed significant relationships between marksmanship performance and measures of attention, spatial orientation, and visual scanning. However, the results do not support the validity of this friend/foe detection task a measure of DM. These results support the assertion that return-to-duty Soldiers experiencing cognitive impairments may require additional marksmanship training and re-learning prior to reintegration.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA553803

Entities

People

  • Adam Thompson
  • Amanda M. Kelley
  • Brad Erickson
  • Jeremy R. Athy
  • Jim Chiaramonte
  • Melinda Vasbinder
  • Melody King

Organizations

  • United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Cognition
  • Department Of Defense
  • Factor Analysis
  • Information Operations
  • Information Processing
  • Linear Regression Analysis
  • Mental Processes
  • Military Operations
  • Motor Skills
  • Psychology
  • Reaction Time
  • Reasoning
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Psychology
  • Training
  • Visual Acuity

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Marksmanship and Weaponry.
  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.