Tracking proficiency as a function of thermal balance

¹ Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory, APO 731, Seattle, Washington

An experiment was conducted for the purpose of learning a) whether or not performance decrement in monitoring and controlling a complex visual display is related to body heat loss and b) whether or not such an impairment can be forestalled by glycine administration. Following extensive training on the experimental task, 72 subjects were independently and randomly assigned to the 9 combinations of 3 ambient temperature conditions (70°, 55° and 40°F) and 3 glycine treatments (0, 20 and 40 gm), then required to execute a performance sequence lasting 3 hours and 20 minutes. Statistical analyses established that the mathematical function relating performance to temperature was a parabola having a maximum near 55°. No significant glycine effects were observed.