Stress, Information Processing and Coping with Depth: Problems of Individual Divers

摘要

The diver's ability to cope with the underwater situation is an important factor with respect to the diver's performance and physiological reactions. The aim of the present study was to assess a possible increase in psychological load, requiring additional coping, as a consequence of diving at greater depths during advanced diver training. Performance (Continuous Memory Task: CMT) and physiological measures (heart rate, blood pressure component, respiration) were obtained for dives at twenty meters depth and a narcotic dive at fifty meters depth. These measures were compared with control measures obtained during the basic training course involving shallow dives at about three meters. It was found that an increased depth is not necessarily accompanied by an increased psychological response, provided that the diver coped well during the shallow conditions. For divers less efficient under such conditions, performance effectiveness is reduced by an increase in depth. Such divers were characterized by a decreased blood pressure component of heart rate variability, an increased response to task load, a suppressed bradycardia and a less efficient performance level.