Date of Award

Summer 8-2000

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems

Department

Human Factors and Systems

Committee Chair

John A. Wise

Committee Member

Gerald L. Gamache

Committee Member

John W. Williams

Abstract

This thesis was designed to study whether age has a significant effect on cognitive test results among persons exposed to ionizing radiation. The data for this investigation came from the fourth year of a 1995-98 longitudinal study of subjects exposed to radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear power plant accident. Accuracy and efficiency scores from four cognitive tests taken by 84 Ukrainian volunteers were divided into two age groups and three radiation dosage groups for analysis. The results of this study found that decrements in human performance on tasks involving spatial processing increase with age in persons who have been exposed to ionizing radiation, but only in efficiency scores. However, no significant age/radiation dose interaction was evident from the ANOVA tests.

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