The Effect of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation on the Improvement of Cognitive Function related to Accuracy and Attention in Military Shooters with Moderating Effect of Organism Constraint

The development of functional promotion methods in military tactics, especially shooting, is essential for the military. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of neuropsychological rehabilitation on the improvement of cognitive function related to accuracy and attention in military shooters with moderating effect of organism constraint.

The current study was a quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and retention design with control group, it was performed on 64 military shooters aged 25 to 34 (32 people with competitive state anxiety and 32 people without competitive state anxiety). Participants were randomly selected from a military base in Tehran, Iran and were purposefully divided into four groups 1) experimental without competitive state anxiety, 2) control without competitive state anxiety, 3) experimental with competitive state anxiety and 4) control with competitive state anxiety. Experimental groups received neuropsychological rehabilitation for 7 weeks in addition to shooting training (three sessions per week). Control groups participated only in shooting training. Competitive state anxiety was considered as moderator of organism constraint. Instruments included neuropsychological rehabilitation program, the continuous performance test and the cox competitive state anxiety inventory.

Results of data analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA showed a significant difference between the mean scores commission error, omission error and hit reaction time of the pre-test and post-test experimental and control groups. the experimental group without competitive state anxiety as well as the experimental group without competitive state anxiety, showed significant improvements in cognitive functions related to accuracy and attention following neuropsychological interventions; while no change was observed in the control groups (p<0/001). Competitive state anxiety also contributed to differences among groups.

According to the findings of this study neuropsychological rehabilitation can be applied as an efficient method to the improvement of cognitive function related to accuracy and attention in military shooters in status without competitive state anxiety and with competitive state anxiety.