Manual Dexterity Task Performance Efficiency in the Open Ocean Underwater Environment

Abstract

Six experienced male SCUBA divers performed a test of manual dexterity in the open ocean underwater environment. Each was timed on the assembly of ten bolt combinations at a shallow (4.6m) and deeper (15.3m) ocean depth. Performance efficiency, as measured by the time to complete the task, declined 25.8% at 4.6m and 36.8% at 15.3m underwater, when compared to equivalent dry land performance. The synthesis of results from the current study and data adduced from previous experimental work concerning manual dexterity underwater, suggests that percentage increase in task completion time is linearly related to the depth of ocean performance. This observation implicates the major role of physical factors in performance decrement with increasing depth and attributes a lesser influence to situational anxiety than has previously been apportioned. In addition, task skill level is identified as a potent interactive variant of performance underwater. The proposed function permits calculation of completion times of simple manual dexterity tasks over the range of ocean depths in which air breathing divers may operate. In consequence, it holds potential importance in setting temporal constraints on performance and safety standards for the submerged operator.