Roberts Aaron P J, Cole Jon C
University of Liverpool, Eleanor Rathbone Building, Bedford Street South, Liverpool L69 7ZA, United Kingdom.
Mil Med. 2013 May;178(5):479-86. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00385.
Police officers routinely wear body armor to protect themselves against the threat posed by firearms and edged weapons, yet little is known of the cognitive effects of doing so. Two studies investigated the effects of exercise and body armor on working memory function in healthy volunteers. In study 1, male undergraduates were assigned to one of four groups: (i) brief exercise, (ii) brief exercise wearing body armor, (iii) extended exercise, and (iv) extended exercise wearing body armor. In study 2, university gym members were assigned to one of two groups: (i) wearing body armor and (ii) not wearing body armor. In both studies, heart rate and oral temperature were measured before, immediately after, and 5 minutes after exercise. The phonemic verbal fluency task and digits backward test were administered at the same time points. In both studies, a mixed analysis of variance revealed statistically significant changes to the cognitive functioning of participants. A change in cognitive strategy was observed, reflected by a decrease in executive function (switches) and an increase in nonexecutive function (cluster size). These data suggest that the cognitive effects of exercise and body armor may have profound implications for police officers' ability to make tactical decisions.
警察经常穿着防弹衣来保护自己免受枪支和利刃武器的威胁，然而人们对这样做的认知影响却知之甚少。两项研究调查了运动和防弹衣对健康志愿者工作记忆功能的影响。在研究1中，男性本科生被分为四组之一：（i）短暂运动，（ii）穿着防弹衣进行短暂运动，（iii）长时间运动，以及（iv）穿着防弹衣进行长时间运动。在研究2中，大学健身房会员被分为两组之一：（i）穿着防弹衣，以及（ii）不穿防弹衣。在两项研究中，在运动前、运动后立即以及运动后5分钟测量心率和口腔温度。在相同时间点进行音素言语流畅性任务和倒背数字测试。在两项研究中，混合方差分析均显示参与者的认知功能有统计学上的显著变化。观察到认知策略的改变，表现为执行功能（转换）下降和非执行功能（聚类大小）增加。这些数据表明，运动和防弹衣的认知影响可能对警察做出战术决策的能力产生深远影响。
