Exploring the Relationship Between Stress, Coping Strategies, and Performance in an Adapting Training System

Adaptive training (AT) is a promising avenue for training across multiple domains pertinent to warfighters, as it can adjust instruction and task difficulty based on the learner’s real-time performance. Despite these benefits, such adaptations may elevate learner stress, hindering performance and learning. Coping strategies may be used to mitigate learner stress, but there is limited extant research comparing adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in an adaptive training environment. This study explores the relationship between stress and task performance in the context of an adaptive training system that dynamically adjusted task difficulty based on real-time performance. Participants completed a radio frequency signal detection task in which they had to classify and report signals quickly and accurately. Participants were also instructed on adaptive or maladaptive stress coping strategies that either focused on the task itself (problem-focused) or on their emotions (emotion-focused). Results suggest that task engagement is related to performance and changes in micro-adaptive difficulty. Distress and worry, however, did not consistently relate to task performance or micro-adaptive difficulty. Problem-focused coping helped maintain task performance regardless of whether the strategy was adaptative or maladaptive. Maladaptive, emotion-focused coping led to the worst performance outcomes. Limitations and future directions are discussed.