Influence of a caring, task-involving motivational climate on army cadets’ self-efficacy, arousal, attentional focus, and marksmanship performance

Introduction: Initial qualitative research has supported the extension of motivational climates to the military context. Thus, there is a need for transdisciplinary research to examine the motivational climate that fosters psychophysiological responses in military personnel while conducting representative tasks. Methods: A total of 64 Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets completed a baseline marksmanship task (Time 1) and repeated the same task 1 month later (Time 2) in either a caring, task-involving (CTI) or ego-involving (EI) motivational climate condition created by a senior ROTC cadet leader. At both time points, cadets' heart rate variability (i.e., arousal state), gaze fixation (i.e., attentional focus), shooting task self-efficacy, and performance (i.e., hitting the target) were recorded. Results: Analysis of Time 2 climate survey responses confirmed that the ROTC cadet leaders fostered significantly different climate conditions. Analysis of covariances (ANCOVAs), controlling for baseline values, revealed meaningful differences across conditions (i.e., variance explained by condition) and often significant differences. At Time 2, CTI condition cadets had higher self-efficacy, arousal, gaze fixation time, and averaged three more target hits (out of 45) compared to the EI condition. Discussion: Overall, those in the CTI condition were physiologically more aroused, with greater attentional focus, which positively influenced their self-efficacy and performance.