Individual Differences in Pilot Performance

Abstract

Selected literature on individual differences in pilot performance is reviewed in order to indicate a possible direction for research. Decision-making performance in contingency situations is seen as a potentially fruitful area for study of individual differences, although information on the relative roles of experience and cognitive abilities, styles, and strategies are needed in all research areas. The role of cognitive styles in pilot performance is essentially unexplored; however, the identification of individual pilot behavior differences that have been attributed to style differences and the results of automobile driver behavior research suggest considerable potential. Approaches to studying pilot decision-making processes are discussed, with emphasis given to the wrong-model approach in which accident and incident data, or “process tracing” provide experimental computational structures. Analysis of data from a simulator experiment on V/STOL zero-visibility landing performance suggests that the order of ranking of individual pilot's effectiveness varies with particular situations defined by combinations of tracking requirements (e.g., glide slope, localizer) and glide-slope segment, or speed requirements; the data are being further analyzed.

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