Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Apr 26, 2026
Date Accepted: Jun 12, 2026
Construct Validation of a Remote Brain Health Assessment Battery to Evaluate Vocational Aptitude and Factors Associated with Cognitive Resilience in the Military: An Observational Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Vocational aptitude and cognitive resilience are predictors of military success, yet current assessments rely on resource-intensive, in-person testing that limits scalability. A brief, self-administered, and remotely deployable computerized battery offers a practical solution for large-scale screening and monitoring.
Objective:
To deploy a set of self-administrable, computerized assessments in National Guard recruits and assess preliminary construct validity against a standardized measure of aptitude and a research-based proxy of cognitive resilience.
Methods:
In this observational study, 267 enlisted service members from the Minnesota Army National Guard participated in two complementary ethics-approved observational trials: Office of Naval Research (ONR) Neuropsychometrics and Advancing Research on Mechanisms of Resilience (ARMOR). National Guards completed the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (Penn CNB), and a novel 20-minute computerized brain health assessment battery (BrainHQ) at separate timepoints over the course of their military career.
Results:
Performance on BrainHQ was significantly associated with enlistment eligibility and vocational aptitude, as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test (P < 0.001) after controlling for age and education. The overall model explained 24.4% of the variance in AFQT percentiles (adjusted R2 = 0.227). The BrainHQ assessment composite was the strongest predictor, uniquely accounting for 19.2% of the variance, supporting construct validity of aptitude. Preplanned partial correlations between BrainHQ subtests and standardized neurocognitive measures from the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery showed significant positive associations (all P < .05) with cognitive domains typically associated with cognitive resilience.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that a brief and scalable brain health battery may offer a cost-effective and operationally feasible method to inform recruitment screening methods and cognitive resilience monitoring. Future studies should evaluate whether integrating remote, scalable cognitive assessments into current practices predict success in basic combat training, guide military progression, and support long-term cognitive monitoring across the Armed Forces.
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