HUMAN BEHAVIOR PROGRAM 271 



Helium Speech 



Most divers understood and recognized voices after two to three days, but had continual 

 difficulty in localizing sounds inside the habitat. Speech became lower in pitch and slower with 

 adaptation. 



Adaptation to Cold Water 



Although some divers said they adapted to the cold water within the first two to three days, 

 many said they were still adapting at the end of the 15-day period. As expected, there were 

 large individual differences in cold tolerance. 



The divers stated overwhelmingly that, if the Sealab II habitat is used again, the team size 

 should be six to eight. Many felt also that specific tasks should be laid out for each man be- 

 fore going down. 



Motivation and Morale 



The motivation and morale of the men was extremely high in spite of the stressful aspects 

 of the situation. It is concluded that mixed teams of Navy and civilian divers can successfully 

 perform useful work. It is cautioned, however, that when the novelty of being "first" wears off, 

 more attention must be paid to the selection of team members. 



Overall Adjustment and Adaptation 



The amount of time spent diving increased from team to team, and within all three teams 

 from the first to the second week. Group cohesiveness, as measured by the divers' choices of 

 own team members, increased for each of the three teams from pre- to postexperiment meas- 

 ures. That is, more men were chosen from within a man's own team post as compared to pre- 

 experiment. 



There were differences between teams in original levels of cohesiveness as well as differ- 

 ences in increase in cohesiveness between the teams. 



There was no evidence of any serious interpersonal difficulties on any of the three teams. 



Despite a general feeling of accomplishment, many men were dissatisfied with the amount 

 of work they personally achieved. 



Correlations between pre- and postchoices of both leaders and teammates were very high, 

 indicating that in general the same men were chosen as most desirable leaders and teammates 

 after the experiment as before. 



There were, however, some interesting changes between pre- and postchoices, chief of 

 which is the fact that number of years of diving experience was not associated with postchoices, 

 whereas it was with prechoice. 



Different criteria were used for choosing leaders and teammates. Men who complained 

 about conditions in the Sealab habitat tended not to be chosen as a teammate on the postdive 

 questionnaire. 



In conclusion, it should be made clear that in spite of all the obstacles and dangers present 

 during Sealab II, an unprecedented amount of useful work was accomplished. While some of 

 this work possibly could have been performed from the surface, a diver, with his inherent flex- 

 ibility for on-the-spot decision making and planning, was the essential element in the program. 

 The aquanauts' performance of scientific and operational tasks demonstrates clearly that man 

 can live in harmony with the hostile undersea environment. Having again demonstrated the 

 tremendous ability of man to adapt, the future of undersea habitation and exploration should be 

 limited only by our technology and imagination. 



