Characterizing Relationships Among the Cognitive, Physical, Social-emotional, and Health-related Traits of Military Personnel.
Grace E Giles, Ester Navarro, Seth Elkin-Frankston, Tad T Brunyé, Wade R Elmore, Joseph F Seay, Kari L McKenzie, Kevin S O'Fallon, Stephanie A Brown, Joseph L Parham, Todd N Garlie, Linda DeSimone, Jose D Villa, Hyegjoo E Choi-Rokas, K Blake Mitchell, Kenneth Racicot, Jason W Soares, Christina Caruso, Debra Anderson, Julie A Cantelon, Aaron L Gardony, Tracey J Smith, J Philip Karl, Julianna M Jayne, John J Christopher, Maria K Talarico, Jennifer Neugebauer Sperlein, Angela C Boynton, Andrew Jensen, John W Ramsay, Marianna D Eddy
Author Information
Grace E Giles: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Ester Navarro: Center for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Seth Elkin-Frankston: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Tad T Brunyé: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Wade R Elmore: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Joseph F Seay: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Kari L McKenzie: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Kevin S O'Fallon: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Stephanie A Brown: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Joseph L Parham: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Todd N Garlie: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Linda DeSimone: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Jose D Villa: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Hyegjoo E Choi-Rokas: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
K Blake Mitchell: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Kenneth Racicot: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Jason W Soares: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Christina Caruso: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Debra Anderson: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Julie A Cantelon: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Aaron L Gardony: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Tracey J Smith: United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
J Philip Karl: United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Julianna M Jayne: United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
John J Christopher: United States Army Aberdeen Test Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA.
Maria K Talarico: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Analysis Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA.
Jennifer Neugebauer Sperlein: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Analysis Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA.
Angela C Boynton: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Analysis Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA.
Andrew Jensen: Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA 92152, USA.
John W Ramsay: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
Marianna D Eddy: United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, MA 01760, USA.
INTRODUCTION: Personnel engaged in high-stakes occupations, such as military personnel, law enforcement, and emergency first responders, must sustain performance through a range of environmental stressors. To maximize the effectiveness of military personnel, an a priori understanding of traits can help predict their physical and cognitive performance under stress and adversity. This work developed and assessed a suite of measures that have the potential to predict performance during operational scenarios. These measures were designed to characterize four specific trait-based domains: cognitive, health, physical, and social-emotional. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and ninety-one active duty U.S. Army soldiers completed interleaved questionnaire-based, seated task-based, and physical task-based measures over a period of 3-5 days. Redundancy analysis, dimensionality reduction, and network analyses revealed several patterns of interest. RESULTS: First, unique variable analysis revealed a minimally redundant battery of instruments. Second, principal component analysis showed that metrics tended to cluster together in three to five components within each domain. Finally, analyses of cross-domain associations using network analysis illustrated that cognitive, health, physical, and social-emotional domains showed strong construct solidarity. CONCLUSIONS: The present battery of metrics presents a fieldable toolkit that may be used to predict operational performance that can be clustered into separate components or used independently. It will aid predictive algorithm development aimed to identify critical predictors of individual military personnel and small-unit performance outcomes.
Grants
Measuring and Advancing Soldier Tactical Readiness and Effectiveness (MASTR-E) program/U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center
