| Abstract: | Micropat is a battery of computer-based aptitude tests designed to assess aspects of psychomotor coordination and information management. Initial research and development work on Micropat started in 1980 with the Army Air Corps and the tests were successfully validated against rotary wing pilot training outcome. In 1985, funding for the project was taken over by the Royal Navy (RN) with a view to improving selection for both RN Pilots and RN Observers. Validation of the main battery was carried out on Pilot and Observer trainees at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), Dartmouth, UK. The paper outlines the development of the Micropat programme over the past decade, focusing on a number of key practical methodological issues. These include discussion of the task-based approach to test construction, the use made of the potential afforded by computer-based assessment and the problem of developing robust composite predictors from small samples. In particular, the relative merits of unit-weighted, rationally weighted and empirically weighted composite predictors are examined. Evidence for the validity of the tests is summarized. It is concluded that we are unlikely to improve substantially on the levels of prediction which were being obtained in the 1950s. Continual development and improvement in selection testing is needed simply to maintain levels of prediction as the demands of flying change. The new forms of test made possible by computer-based assessment technology provide the means of maintaining useful levels of prediction as flying training courses become longer and more complex. |
