Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise and pilot performance: enhanced functioning under search-and-rescue flying conditions

Studies have shown that autonomous mode behavior is one cause of aircraft fatalities due to pilot error. In such cases, the pilot is in a high state of psychological and physiological arousal and tends to focus on one problem, while ignoring more critical information. This study examined the effect of training in physiological self-recognition and regulation, as a means of improving crew cockpit performance. Seventeen pilots were assigned to the treatment and control groups matched for accumulated flight hours. The treatment group contained 4 pilots from HC-130 Hercules aircraft and 4 HH-65 Dolphin helicopter pilots; the control group contained 3 pilots of HC-130s and 6 helicopter pilots. During an initial flight, physiological data were recorded on each crewmember and an instructor pilot rated individual crew performance. Eight crewmembers were then taught to regulate their own physiological response levels using Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE). The remaining participants received no training. During a second flight, treatment participants showed significant improvement in performance (rated by the same instructor pilot as in pretests) while controls did not improve. The results indicate that AFTE management of high states of physiological arousal may improve pilot performance during emergency flying conditions.     

Impact of automation on aircrew communication and decision-making performance

Increasing levels of automation are being introduced into the cockpit. Yet, it is difficult to predict the impact of these automatic systems on other elements of flight, such as crew communication and the ability to arrive at an effective decision. This study attempted to clarify the relation among these variables. Forty-eight pilots were assigned to two-person crews and asked to fly a simulated mission in either automated or manual conditions using a low-fidelity simulator. The scenario was designed to require crewmembers to arrive at a collective decision based on information obtained about an evolving simulated disaster. The results indicated that the introduction of automation was not associated with better performance. However, several significant differences were observed in the communications of crews flying in the automated versus manual conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for communications training for advanced technology aircraft.     

Pilot personality and crew coordination: implications for training and selection

The performance of pilots can be construed as a product of skill, attitude, and personality factors. Although a great deal of effort within the aviation community has been focused on ensuring technical expertise, and new efforts highlight attitudes associated with crew coordination, personality factors have been relatively unexplored. Further, it is argued that past failures to find linkages between personality and performance were due to a combination of inadequate statistical modeling, premature performance evaluation, and/or the reliance on data gathered in contrived as opposed to realistic situations. The goal of the research presented in this article is to isolate subgroups of pilots along performance-related personality dimensions and to document limits on the impact of crew coordination training between the groups. Two samples of military pilots were surveyed in the context of training in crew coordination. Three different profiles were identified through cluster analysis of personality scales. These clusters replicated across samples and predicted attitude change following training in crew coordination.     

Cockpit-cabin communication: II. Shall we tell the pilots?

In a previous article (Chute & Wiener, 1995), we explored the coordination between the "two cultures" in an airliner's crew: cockpit and cabin. In this article, we discuss a particular problem: the dilemma facing the cabin crew when they feel that they have safety-critical information and must decide whether to take it to the cockpit. We explore the reasons for the reluctance of the flight attendant to come forward with the information, such as self-doubt about the accuracy or importance of the information, fear of dismissal or rebuke by the pilots, and misunderstanding of the sterile cockpit rule. Insight into crew attitudes was based on our examination of accident and incident reports and data from questionnaires submitted by pilots and flight attendants at two airlines. The results show confusion and disagreement about what is permissible to take to the cockpit when it is sterile, as well as imbalances in authority and operational knowledge. Possible remedies are proposed.     

Information access in a dual-task context: testing a model of optimal strategy selection

Pilots were required to access information from a hierarchical aviation database by navigating under single-task conditions (Experiment 1) and when this task was time-shared with an altitude-monitoring task of varying bandwidth and priority (Experiment 2). In dual-task conditions, pilots had 2 viewports available, 1 always used for the information task and the other to be allocated to either task. Dual-task strategy, inferred from the decision of which task to allocate to the 2nd viewport, revealed that allocation was generally biased in favor of the monitoring task and was only partly sensitive to the difficulty of the 2 tasks and their relative priorities. Some dominant sources of navigational difficulties failed to adaptively influence selection strategy. The implications of the results are to provide tools for jumping to the top of the database, to provide 2 viewports into the common database, and to provide training as to the optimum viewport management strategy in a multitask environment.     

The “enhanced” warrior: drone warfare and the problematics of separation

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, are increasingly employed for military purposes. They are extolled for improving operational endurance and targeting precision on the one hand and keeping drone crew from harm on the other. In the midst of such praise, what falls by the wayside is an entangled set of concerns about the ways in which the relationship between the pilots and their operational environment is being reconfigured. This paper traces the various manifestations of this reconfiguration and goes on to situate our being-with drones in a broader set of sociotechnical practices that shape our understanding of visual technologies. Our inquiry is grounded in technical reports of performance, media coverage of accidents, as well as a detailed first-person account of a former drone pilot. Our analysis suggests that being-with drones is disciplining our perception in subtle ways that remain underexplored. We conclude that when it comes to appraising technologies that interface with the human sensorium, functionalist claims of enhancement are inadequate to the task and propose that phenomenology’s commitment to the phenomena themselves can serve as a useful corrective.     

The roles of perceived task interdependence and group members' interdependence in the development of collective efficacy in university student group contexts

Background . Although the relationship between collective efficacy and group performance has been frequently investigated, a few studies have investigated the development of collective efficacy. Aim . This paper proposes some determinants of collective efficacy in small university groups. Group level hypotheses and research questions relating collective efficacy to collective cognition activities, task interdependence, self‐efficacy for group work, and collective orientation were posited. Sample . The sample comprised 145 university students in 40 work‐groups. Method . A two‐phase longitudinal design was employed in the context of university student groups. All groups were required to perform interdependent academic tasks. Aggregated variables were used after testing for within‐group agreement. Results . The results of multiple regression analysis provided some evidence that the more group members perceived themselves to be interdependent in the early stages of group work and assigned their tasks interdependently during group processes, the more likely they were to develop high collective efficacy in the final stages of group work. Collective efficacy was also related to the group average of self‐efficacy for group work especially when task interdependence was perceived to be high. Conclusions . The results suggest that forming groups with capable university students in group work, strengthening university students' perceptions of themselves as interdependent in the early stages of academic group work and assigning interdependent group tasks during group work may contribute to the development of high collective efficacy.     

飞行中惊吓和惊奇的管理——拓展的Landman模型

在飞行活动中,飞行员的惊吓和惊奇反应是导致飞行失控的重要因素。惊吓和惊奇反应可能使飞行员熟练训练过的操作程序和技能被遗忘,取而代之的是不适当的直觉性的行为或草率的决策。现有的使用飞行模拟器的研究表明,Landman模型对减轻飞行员惊吓和惊奇的训练有重要价值。在Landman模型的基础上,我们加入了飞行员心理能力的个体间差别（即拓展的Landman模型）,因此拓展的Landman模型对于飞行员的选拔和训练将具有重要意义。     

Effects of group goal content on group processes,collective efficacy,and satisfaction

We examined the efficacy of groups possessing learning as opposed to performance goals on an interactive group task. As such, we predicted that the possession of learning goals focuses groups more on strategic processes than the possession of performance or do‐best goals. We further hypothesized that collective efficacy beliefs are most strongly correlated with performance for groups that possess performance goals because performance goals direct attention to task outcomes. Results indicated that groups assigned learning goals discussed more strategic information and reported greater satisfaction with performance. In addition, the relationship between task performance and collective efficacy was stronger for performance‐goal groups than learning‐goal groups. Overall, results suggested that causing groups to attend to processes required for effective group performance influences how groups regulate behavior and interpret feedback.     

Cyberethics and Co-operation in the Information Society

The task of this paper is to ground the notion of cyberethics of co-operation. The evolution of modern society has resulted in a shift from industrial society towards informational capitalism. This transformation is a multidimensional shift that affects all aspects of society. Hence also the ethical system of society is penetrated by the emergence of the knowledge society and ethical guidelines for the information age are needed. Ethical issues and conflicts in the knowledge society are connected to topics of ecological and social sustainability. For information ethics and cyberethics, the sustainable design of society, social, and socio-technological systems is important. In this context the notions of sustainability and co-operation are discussed. Based on these categories, the approach of cyberethics of co-operation can be theoretically grounded.     

Musical expertise has minimal impact on dual task performance

Studies investigating effect of practice on dual task performance have yielded conflicting findings, thus supporting different theoretical accounts about the organisation of attentional resources when tasks are performed simultaneously. Because practice has been proven to reduce the demand of attention for the trained task, the impact of long-lasting training on one task is an ideal way to better understand the mechanisms underlying dual task decline in performance. Our study compared performance during dual task execution in expert musicians compared to controls with little if any musical experience. Participants performed a music recognition task and a visuo-spatial task separately (single task) or simultaneously (dual task). Both groups showed a significant but similar performance decline during dual tasks. In addition, the two groups showed a similar decline of dual task performance during encoding and retrieval of the musical information, mainly attributed to a decline in sensitivity. Our results suggest that attention during dual tasks is similarly distributed by expert and non-experts. These findings are in line with previous studies showing a lack of sensitivity to difficulty and lack of practice effect during dual tasks, supporting the idea that different tasks may rely on different and not-sharable attentional resources.     

Neural effects of short-term training on working memory

Working memory training has been the focus of intense research interest. Despite accumulating behavioral work, knowledge about the neural mechanisms underlying training effects is scarce. Here, we show that 7 days of training on an n-back task led to substantial performance improvements in the trained task; furthermore, the experimental group showed cross-modal transfer, as compared with an active control group. In addition, there were two neural effects that emerged as a function of training: first, increased perfusion during task performance in selected regions, reflecting a neural response to cope with high task demand; second, increased blood flow at rest in regions where training effects were apparent. We also found that perfusion at rest was correlated with task proficiency, probably reflecting an improved neural readiness to perform. Our findings are discussed within the context of the available neuroimaging literature on n-back training.     

Bidirectional interactions between circadian entrainment and cognitive performance

Circadian rhythms influence a variety of physiological and behavioral processes; however, little is known about how circadian rhythms interact with the organisms' ability to acquire and retain information about their environment. These experiments tested whether rats trained outside their endogenous active period demonstrate the same rate of acquisition, daily performance, and remote memory ability as their nocturnally trained counterparts in tasks of sustained attention and spatial memory. Furthermore, we explored how daily task training influenced circadian patterns of activity. We found that rats demonstrate better acquisition and performance on an operant task requiring attentional effort when trained during the dark-phase. Time of day did not affect acquisition or performance on the Morris water maze; however, when animals were retested 2 wk after their last day of training, they showed better remote memory if training originally occurred during the dark-phase. Finally, attentional, but not spatial, task performance during the light-phase promotes a shift toward diurnality and the synchronization of activity to the time of daily training; this shift was most robust when the demands on the cognitive control of attention were highest. Our findings support a theory of bidirectional interactions between cognitive performance and circadian processes and are consistent with the view that the circadian abnormalities associated with shift-work, aging, and neuropsychiatric illnesses may contribute to the deleterious effects on cognition often present in these populations. Furthermore, these findings suggest that time of day should be an important consideration for a variety of cognitive tasks principally used in psychological and neuroscience research.     

Trait emotional intelligence and leadership self-efficacy: their relationship with collective efficacy

In this article, a leadership model is presented, with which to investigate the relationship of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI), leadership self-efficacy and leader's task self-efficacy with collective task efficacy and group performance. The sample was made up of 217 undergraduate students, randomly assigned to work teams of 1 leader and 2 followers that were requested to perform a production task. An adapted version of the Schutte Self-Report Inventory (SSRI; Schutte et al., 1998) was used to measure trait EI. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Results indicated that task self-efficacy was a mediator between leadership self-efficacy and collective task efficacy; the latter, in turn, was the best predictor of group performance. No significant relationship was found between trait EI and collective task efficacy although, unexpectedly, trait EI was positively associated with leadership self-efficacy. Implications of the results are discussed.     

The mental health of pilots: An overview

The impact and long-term psychological consequences of the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA involving commercial aircraft are likely to be far-reaching. Pilots were directly affected by these events though it is too early to comprehend the specific psychological and occupational repercussions. While psychologists have written much on the selection of commercial and military aircrew, surprisingly little has been published on the mental health of pilots. They are a unique occupational group in terms of their selection, training, lifestyle, frequent competency and medical checks, as well as the nature and changing demands placed on them. Their 'office' is normally a cramped flight deck on board an aircraft at altitudes of thousands of feet. While some aspects of their job and lifestyle appear attractive to some, their working conditions are, at worst, inhospitable and unpleasant. This paper provides an overview of current research on the mental health of pilots, gathered from a number of different fields and specialities within commercial and military aviation. The review covers their lifestyle, psychological requirements for medical certification, psychological problems amongst air crew, personality factors, disruption to personal relationships, reactions to incidents and accidents, alcohol and drug misuse, suicide by aircraft and environmental challenges. Flight crew should have easy access to psychological support; however, many pilots are distrusting of mental health professionals. Further research is needed to improve an understanding of mental health issues among pilots, especially in order to better understand the psychological impact of the terrorist attacks upon them.     

Pragmatic use of stereotyping in teamwork: social loafing and compensation as a function of inferred partner-situation fit

Using 4 experiments, the authors examined how stereotypic information about teammates influences social loafing and compensation during collective tasks. In each experiment, participants performed better on cognitive tasks when there was a poor (vs. good) fit between the stereotypic strengths of their partner and the requirements of the task. This pattern occurred whether participants used gender stereotypes (Experiment 1) or occupational stereotypes (Experiments 2 to 4) and occurred even when participants only anticipated working on a collective task (Experiment 4). In Experiment 3, the pattern occurred only in the collective (not in the coactive) condition, providing direct evidence for social loafing. Together, these results suggest that people use stereotypes to tune their motivation to optimize the ratio of their own individual effort to the team's expected output.     

Changes in the EEG frequency spectrum in various phases of mental stress

To obtain evidence about the relationship between spontaneous EEG activity and mental activity, an experiment was designed and executed with EEG recordings during a concept-learning task. We varied task performance (self-paced vs. machine-paced) and distinguished different stages of information processing during task performance. Using factor analysis calculated on all spectral coefficients, we found two orthogonal variables in the clinical alpha band. Alpha 2 power (10.5-12 Hz) seems to reflect the overall processing demands imposed on the individuals. Furthermore, there are different EEG frequency patterns during perceptual-central- compared with response-related processing as well as during processing of positive vs. negative feedback. The results suggest using (1) conservative procedures in hypothesis testing and (2) procedures to reduce between subject variability (a posteriori defined frequency variables, relative power values, scaling of reaction values) in further studies relating EEG activity to mental activity during task performance.     

The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance

Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age-performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age-performance relationship in the future.     

A maturation effect in response inhibition in the rat

The finding that there are maturational differences between the ability to learn and to perform a task requiring young Wistar rats to inhibit a response was examined. Using an operant task, different from that employed in the previous studies, it was established that the finding was not task specific. The relative contribution of different periods in the early training stage to later savings in learning was also examined. It was confirmed that there is an early performance deficit by weanling rats on tasks requiring them to inhibit a previously learned response in the presence of a discriminative cue. Rats given early training on the task during this period of performance deficit nevertheless showed significant savings in later learning of the task, indicating that they had learned as much in that stage as they would have if given the same training at an age when performance is at the adult level. It was revealed that despite age-related differences in performance it was not so much the age at which early training took place as the amount of training given that affected later savings. The results are discussed in light of evidence of similar differences between the learning and performance of discrimination tasks exhibited by young children.     

Status reporting of "eyes on" and peripheral displays during tracking

In response to external requests, pilots often orally report status information read from scattered visual displays while simultaneously controlling an aircraft. For an experimentally controlled "status-reporting" task, we found that the input frequency on a concurrent-tracking task and the task stream-related factors of the rate, uncertainty, and timing of requests showed few significant effects on mean performance times and standard deviations. Tracking performance did vary greatly between the different phases of the "status-reporting" task, the different types of displays and their locations, and the different tracking-input frequencies. An elementary manual control model produced conformal tracking error means and standard deviations when parameters corresponding to behavioral changes were varied. These results indicated that both the performance time statistics of the "status-reporting" task and the influence of concurrent performance on tracking error can be estimated using simple methods.