Military Cognitive Readiness at the Operational and Strategic Levels: A Theoretical Model for Measurement Development

Military cognitive readiness is a somewhat new concept that has been defined many ways. In this article, I review these definitions and propose that cognitive readiness is not just one construct, but three inter-related constructs akin to the military levels of war and readiness (tactical, operational, & strategic). Each of these constructs requires cognitive performance in complex, uncertain, and stressful military operations. However, the nature of performance is different for each. Thus, each level of cognitive readiness requires different measures. As a first step in the development of measures for operational and strategic cognitive readiness, a review of research related to predicting cognitive performance in complex, uncertain, and stressful operations was conducted. From this review a set of inherent psychological factors and their measures were identified. The article concludes by indicating what future steps are needed to develop measures of both operational and strategic readiness.