Abstract
<jats:p>Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of compound environmental stressors in the Mediterranean region, including heatwaves and degraded indoor air quality. While their physical impacts are well established, their influence on complex cognitive performance and high-level decision-making remains insufficiently quantified.This contribution presents a methodological framework to assess cognitive resilience under environmental stress, leveraging structured competitive activities as natural laboratories (Künn et al., 2023). In this study, chess is used as a proxy for strategic decision-making, enabling move-level evaluation of human performance through comparison with AI engine recommendations. Quantitative indicators, such as Best-Move Gap and Average Centipawn Loss, are integrated with indoor environmental measurements (e.g., temperature, CO₂ concentration) to characterize exposure conditions during competitive play.The framework is illustrated through its application to selected Italian chess tournaments, where environmental parameters were monitored throughout competition sessions. Preliminary analyses indicate that variations in indoor environmental conditions may be associated with measurable changes in decision quality metrics, suggesting a potential sensitivity of high-level cognitive performance to environmental stressors.In addition, participant-reported data collected via questionnaires are used to complement objective performance indicators, allowing for a multidimensional interpretation that accounts for subjective perception, experience, and contextual factors. This integrated approach provides a novel pathway to quantify cognitive resilience in real-world settings and contributes to a better understanding of climate-related impacts on human performance in cognitively demanding activities. Steffen Künn, Juan Palacios, Nico Pestel (2023) Indoor Air Quality and Strategic Decision Making. Management Science 69(9):5354-5377. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4643</jats:p>