Impulsividad, toma de decisiones y funciones ejecutivo-atencionales en una muestra de estudiantes militares y civiles

Abstract

En lo que atañe específicamente a los ámbitos militares, las diferencias en el desempeño alcanzado durante el enfrentamiento en combate de tropas se deben en gran parte a factores psicológicos. En este trabajo se realizó una evaluación a 80 estudiantes (60 % mujeres), de los cuales 40 eran de la carrera militar y 40 provenientes de la población general de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Los grupos fueron homogenizados por cuotas de edad, sexo y nivel de estudios alcanzados. A ambos grupos de participantes se les realizó una evaluación para conocer sus niveles de urgencia compulsiva, búsqueda de sensaciones e impulsividad por imprevisión. Luego se les aplicaron varias pruebas neuropsicológicas para estimar sus capacidades atencionales, de control ejecutivo, de fluencia verbal y no verbal y el estilo de toma de decisiones riesgosas versus seguras. Se realizaron dos estudios con los dos grupos de participantes: por un lado, se analizó la influencia de tres subtipos de impulsividad sobre la ejecución en la evaluación neuropsicológica y el proceso de toma de decisiones; en segundo lugar, se compararon los perfiles de cadetes y civiles. Los estudiantes militares se destacaron por la velocidad de procesamiento en tareas repetitivas y por una menor asunción de riesgos. Por otra parte, cometieron más errores y tuvieron una menor fluencia para respuestas novedosas. Se concluye que la formación militar favoreció ciertos aspectos valiosos para la práctica militar, aunque todavía deben mejorarse áreas relacionadas con la flexibilidad y la reflexión ante situaciones ambiguas.

Specifically to the military fields, the differences in the performance achieved during the combat in troops are due to psychological factors. Nowadays it is undeniable that psychological variables can make a major difference in military performance and influence the results of a war. Decision-making is very important in this area, since it is necessary in extreme stress situations. In critical situations, wrong military decisions can seriously affect the civilian population. The control of emotions in situations that generate high levels of stress and the presence of neuropsychological deficits (which would seriously impede the training of cadets) give rise to great limitations in their performance and in their performance in the field and in the classroom. This would generate high impact professional errors for decisions in a war. In this work, we carried out an evaluation of 80 participants (60 % women), of which 40 were students of the military career and 40 students from the general population of the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. The groups were homogenized by age, sex and studies level. Both groups of participants were evaluated to find out their levels of compulsive urgency, sensation seeking and impulsivity. They are then asked to perform neuropsychological tests to estimate their attentional abilities, executive control, verbal and non-verbal fluency, and risky versus safe decision-making style. The presence of symptoms associated with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has also been evaluated, especially in the population of war veterans.The inclusion criteria for the sample implied that the participants were not: psychologists or psychology students; patients taking psychiatric medication or had a psychopathological disorder; subjects who have experienced repeated seizures or absences or have been diagnosed with epilepsy; people who have suffered a coma, stroke, or head injury with loss of consciousness or confusion for more than 30 minutes; subjects with uncompensated hearing or visual deficit, or diagnosed with a neurological disease, uncontrolled hypo or hyperthyroidism or chronic drug use. The criteria also required that the individuals be in good condition to perform the task at the time of the encounters, excluding subjects with clear signs of fever, pain, depression, or anxiety. Two studies were carried out with the two groups of participants: on the one hand, the influence of three subtypes of impulsivity on performance in the neuropsychological assessment and the decision-making process was analyzed; secondly, the profiles of cadets and civilians were compared. Military students were noted for speed of processing on repetitive tasks as well as lower risk-taking. On the other hand, they made more mistakes and had less flow for novel responses. In conclusion, Cadetes were better in two areas than civilians their age. Firstly, in the speed of information processing and secondly, due to greater caution when taking risks. However, it is noteworthy that, although the former emitted quicker responses, it was attentively more difficult for them to inhibit distracting stimuli compared to civilians. This point could indicate that staff training places a lot of emphasis on response speed without training response accuracy. It is concluded that military training favored certain valuable aspects for military practice but that areas related to flexibility and reflection in ambiguous situations still need to be improved.