PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION OF 

 OXYGEN DETERIORATION OF PERFORMANCE AS 

 INDICATED BY A NEW SUBSTITUTION-TEST* 



H. M. JOHNSON AND FRANKLIN C. PASCHAL 



From the Air Service Medical Research Laboratory, Mitchel Field, Long Island, 

 New York. Publication authorized by the Surgeon General, 

 November 4, 1919 



INTRODUCTION 



In the routine classification-tests of American military aviators 

 according to their ability to resist depletion of their oxygen- 

 supply, the rating of their psychological performance is based 

 on criteria which must be evaluated by the psychological observer 

 during the progress of the test. In this respect the criteria of 

 classification are in a measure "subjective" in character. Like 

 all clinical data, they depend to some extent on the personal 

 biases and different degrees of impressionability of the observers. 



A statistical investigation is now in progress at the Air Service 

 Medical Research Laboratory, for the purpose of estimating the 

 importance of the personal equation of the psychologist in his 

 weighing of the criteria. The results obtained to date indicate 

 a definite influence, which usually is not seriously large, and is 

 probably capable of being corrected for. 



From the earliest stages of the development of the psycho- 

 logical studies of the effects of deprivation of oxygen, it was 

 recognized that a test which would furnish an "objective" 

 measure of the extent of deterioration of behavior would have 

 greater authority than the "clinical" methods which were finally 

 adopted. One difficulty underlying the development of "objec- 

 tive" tests lies in the fact that the efforts of the subject to com- 

 pensate for the deterioration in his responses by the expenditure 

 of greater energy in "voluntary" control, are not readily recorded 

 in an interpretable manner. These data are fully as important 



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