Assessment of the Cognitive Load of the Landed Combatant in Virtual Reality.

NCT ID: NCT05676424

Last Updated: 2023-06-27

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-12-31
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-31

Brief Summary

To support the landed soldier during operational missions in hostile environment, equipment must be designed to enable soldiers to cope with strong visual, auditory and informational demands. Technological solutions proposed by manufacturers are embodied in increasingly sophisticated systems.

These systems take too little account of the characteristics of the perceptive and cognitive skills of human beings in an action situation.

Cognitive load results from the interaction between, on the one hand, the characteristics of the task and the constraints it imposes, and on the other hand, the resources available to the individual, in terms of skills, motivation, physiological state and social support. The phenomenon of cognitive overload occurs when the individual no longer has sufficient resources to meet the demands of the task, which leads to a deterioration in his performance which, in high-risk situations, jeopardizes his safety.

Tasks are treated differently depending on their level of difficulty. We will base ourselves on Rasmussen's SRK (Skill Rule Knowledge) model, which describes three levels of information processing: level S refers to the (automatic) processing of sensory-motor and cognitive skills, level R refers to the execution of rules and procedures embedded in mental models, and level K refers to the mental activities of elaborating procedures, based on high-level cognitive mechanisms, such as anticipation, evaluation or planning. Multitasking situations are therefore generally composed of tasks of various levels of difficulty which lead to a higher or lower cost of cognitive control.

Thus, this study is aimed at identifying variations in the subjective level of cognitive load of landed combatants (group leaders) as a function of the level of difficulty of primary tasks.

Conditions

Fatigue

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: OTHER
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• to be a soldier in an infantry regiment,
• to be a group leader.

Exclusion Criteria

• to be in a situation of motor disability,
• to have a cardiac pathology,
• to have a visual pathology not corrected by glasses or contact lenses,
• to have a hearing impairment,
• to have a psychiatric disorder; a progressive neurological or organic pathology requiring drug treatment,
• to take psychotropic drugs,
• to take more than 28 units of alcohol per week,
• to be epileptic.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Direction Centrale du Service de Santé des Armées

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées

Brétigny-sur-Orge, , France

Countries

France

Central Contacts

Julie ALBENTOSA, PhD

Role: CONTACT

julie.albentosa@intradef.gouv.fr

178651217 ext. +33

Françoise DARSES, PhD

Role: CONTACT

francoise.darses@intradef.gouv.fr

178651222 ext. +33

Facility Contacts

Julie ALBENTOSA, PhD

Role: primary

julie.albentosa@intradef.gouv.fr

178651217 ext. +33

Other Identifiers

2022-A01311-42

Identifier Type: OTHER

Identifier Source: secondary_id

2021PBMD07

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id