Response pattern analysis of human cognitive performance under continuous humid heat exposure
In recent years, increasing global warming has caused frequent heat waves, bringing continuous high temperatures and high humidity, and the resulting impairment of human cognitive performance has become a growing concern in society. In order to explore the response pattern of human cognitive performance under humid-heat exposure, five types of continuous cognitive tests were conducted under humid-heat environmental exposure at temperatures of 32, 35, 38, and 41 ℃, respectively, and relative humidity of 70%, during which the characteristics of the cognitive test results (mean reaction time and mean correctness) of 14 male subjects were observed in response to the environmental temperature. The cognitive tests were uninterrupted during the exposure until the subjects refused to continue the experiment. The results showed that: the subjects' mean reaction time to process the cognitive task increased with increasing ambient temperature, and the mean correct rate decreased with increasing ambient temperature; during the exposure time, the mean reaction time increased sequentially in the first 3 tests and then decreased in the 4th and 5th tests; whereas, the mean correct rate continued to decrease in the first 3 tests and increased rapidly in the 4th and 5th tests; furthermore, it was observed that the relative cognitive In addition, it was observed that relative cognitive performance decreased with increasing ambient temperature, but the rate of decrease slowed down when the ambient temperature was higher than 35 ℃. Relative cognitive performance showed an approximate U-shape distribution over the exposure time, and the higher the ambient temperature, the more the lowest point of the U-shape curve corresponded to the earlier time. This study provides a potential solution for the assessment of cognitive performance in hot and humid environments.