An experiment was conducted on volunteers to see how dehydration affected their mental and psychomotor performance during ta 24 hour fluid intake deprivation. These volunteers were give a battery of computer generated psychological tests testing position discrimination, short-term.  Time in task solving, total errors as well as mood self-estimate scales of depression, working energy, anxiety, and self-confidence  were used to give emotional reporting.  

The results of this experiment showed that during dehydration, there was significant deterioration in total test solving time, minimum single task solving time, and total ballast time.

The deprivation of fluids, water led to deterioration in objective parameters of psychological processing.  There was definite deterioration of mental and psychomotor deterioration even in just 24 hours.

Effects of Voluntary fluid intake deprivation on mental and psychomotor performance. Petri NM, Dropulic N, Kardum G .Naval Medical Institute of the Croatian Navy, Croatia. nadan.petri@morh.hr