EFFECTS OF STRESS INOCULATION TRAINING ON BRIDGE SIMULATOR SKILLS ACQUISITION AND PERFORMANCE

Abstract

In 2017, the U.S. Navy experienced several ship incidents in the Western Pacific that resulted in 17 fatalities. Follow-on investigations reported that the Surface Warfare community needs to refocus attention on basic ship handling and stress management. This research investigates the effects of stress inoculation training (SIT) on ship handling and navigation performance of novice ship drivers. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Cold pressor test (CPT) stress group 1, whose participants received stress training while one foot was in a bucket of ice water; cold water perfusion sleeve (CWPS) stress group 2, which received stress training with an ice-cold bladder on their lower backs; and the control group, which received no stress training. This thesis represents one part of a two-part study and focused only on the stress group 2 participants, comparing them with the control group. The results of this research indicate that the CWPS does induce stress as demonstrated by changes in physiological response data; however, the stress response from CWPS appears to be less than the CPT. There is not a statistically significant improvement in performance on the simulator following SIT using CWPS. However, stress measured by heart rate is lowered by SIT with the CWPS to a non-congruent stressor such as the CPT.