Memory impairment during a climbing traverse: implications for search and rescue climbing

Cognitive resource limitations can impair one's ability to multitask. Previous research has shown that climbing is a particularly demanding task, and does not neatly fit into existing cognitive resource models. Climbing is a task relevant to firefighting and search and rescue, and operators often must also handle communication and navigation tasks in tandem. We present the results of a study where a naturalistic narrative memory task was paired with a climbing traverse. As hypothesized, both climbing and memory performance significantly declined in the dual-compared to each single-task condition. The specific cognitive demands of climbing should be explored further using non-verbal secondary tasks, to determine whether an executive resource bottleneck, verbal resource demand, or something else entirely can better explain the dual-task interference. A more thorough understanding of the mental demand in concurrent operational tasks can be used to tailor the modality and timing or diversion of certain tasks for minimal interference.