Stressors and tasks: how and when should stressors be introduced during training for task performance in stressful situations?

Studies on the training of individuals for task performance in stressful situations have typically evaluated procedures that simultaneously expose trainees to tasks and to stressors. Such procedures might create a mutual interference of the stressor with task acquisition, or conversely, of preoccupation with task acquisition with familiarization with the stressors. Using a sample of 180 males, the present study compared a procedure that temporally separates task acquisition from exposure to stressors ("phased training") with the more typical approach which combines the two ("combined training"). The comparison was carried out under varying degrees of stressor-fidelity representation in the course of training, and under two degrees of contingency between quality of task performance and the possibility of avoiding stress. The main result indicates that phased and combined training are equally effective under conditions of noncontingency. In a contingent condition, on the other hand, phased training proves to be significantly superior.