Neuroscience
Human error is now the leading cause of plane crashes, and one of the principal factors that provokes pilots to make mistakes is stress. Some pilots cope heroically in the face of stress, such as Chesley Sullenberger who steered his plane and passengers to safety, landing on the Hudson river after a double engine failure. Others fare less well, with sometimes fatal results. Knowing in advance how pilots will respond to stressful situations is therefore of paramount of importance to flight safety – for example, to indicate whether they need more training.
A new study reports that, more than relevant facts such as age and years of experience, pilots' answers to two simple questions can more accurately forecast how they will respond to a stressful situation.
Samuel Vine and his colleagues recruited 16 experienced commercial airline pilots (average age 35; two women) to complete a Bombardier Dash 8 flight simulator exercise. After they readied the plane for take-off, the pilots were told that the exercise would involve an engine failure occurring shortly after take off (widely considered one of the most stressful situations a pilot can face) and their task would be to land the plane safely. It was at this point that the two key questions were posed to the pilots:
The important finding was that this single measure accurately predicted how well the pilots subsequently coped with the engine failure during the flight simulation. Pilots who rated the upcoming situation as more of a threat tended to perform worse than those who rated it more as a challenge.
This was true whether the pilots' performance was judged subjectively by a flight instructor (who was naive as to the aims of the study) or through objective measures of aircraft control, such as the speed and heading of the plane and the pilots' gaze (in terms of how much they looked where they should on the control panel).
Moreover, the these two simple questions predicted the pilots' coping abilities above and beyond other relevant factors such as age and years of experience. After age and experience were accounted for, the threat/challenge score explained 61 per cent of the variance on the instructor's subjective ratings of performance and 33 per cent of the variance in the heading of the plane. Further analysis showed that one of the key ways that a threat response adversely affected the pilots' handling of the plane was through its effect on their gaze: specifically, a threat reaction was associated with more fixations overall, and looking in the wrong places.
The study isn't perfect – of course it relied on a flight simulator for one thing – but the results are important. They have "implications for safety and error avoidance in safety critical industries (e.g. aviation, surgery, and driving) and for improved performance in stressful applied environments (e.g. sport and military)," the researchers concluded, "... the current study provides further support for the validity of expedient self-report measures that can be easily collected in applied environments."
_________________________________
Vine, S., Uiga, L., Lavric, A., Moore, L., Tsaneva-Atanasova, K., & Wilson, M. (2015). Individual reactions to stress predict performance during a critical aviation incident Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 28 (4), 467-477 DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2014.986722
--further reading--
If your plane gets lost you'd better hope there's an orienteer on board
Improving aircraft safety
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Sorry To Say, But Your Pilot's Decisions Are Likely Just As Irrational As Yours And Mine
Flying a plane is no trivial task, but adverse weather conditions are where things get seriously challenging. Tragically, a contributing factor to many fatal accidents is when the pilot has misjudged the appropriateness of the flying conditions. Now in...
- Day 6 Of Digest Super Week: Meet The Supertaskers
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- If Your Plane Gets Lost You'd Better Hope There's An Orienteer On Board
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- Neuroergonomics
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Neuroscience
Just two questions predict how well a pilot will handle an emergency
A new study reports that, more than relevant facts such as age and years of experience, pilots' answers to two simple questions can more accurately forecast how they will respond to a stressful situation.
Samuel Vine and his colleagues recruited 16 experienced commercial airline pilots (average age 35; two women) to complete a Bombardier Dash 8 flight simulator exercise. After they readied the plane for take-off, the pilots were told that the exercise would involve an engine failure occurring shortly after take off (widely considered one of the most stressful situations a pilot can face) and their task would be to land the plane safely. It was at this point that the two key questions were posed to the pilots:
"How demanding do you expect the task to be?"
"How able are you to cope with the demands of the task?"The pilots scored their answer to each question on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 6 (extremely). The difference between the two provided a single measure of whether the pilots interpreted the forthcoming emergency as a challenge (when coping ability outweighs demands) or a threat (coping ability insufficient for the demands).
The important finding was that this single measure accurately predicted how well the pilots subsequently coped with the engine failure during the flight simulation. Pilots who rated the upcoming situation as more of a threat tended to perform worse than those who rated it more as a challenge.
This was true whether the pilots' performance was judged subjectively by a flight instructor (who was naive as to the aims of the study) or through objective measures of aircraft control, such as the speed and heading of the plane and the pilots' gaze (in terms of how much they looked where they should on the control panel).
Moreover, the these two simple questions predicted the pilots' coping abilities above and beyond other relevant factors such as age and years of experience. After age and experience were accounted for, the threat/challenge score explained 61 per cent of the variance on the instructor's subjective ratings of performance and 33 per cent of the variance in the heading of the plane. Further analysis showed that one of the key ways that a threat response adversely affected the pilots' handling of the plane was through its effect on their gaze: specifically, a threat reaction was associated with more fixations overall, and looking in the wrong places.
The study isn't perfect – of course it relied on a flight simulator for one thing – but the results are important. They have "implications for safety and error avoidance in safety critical industries (e.g. aviation, surgery, and driving) and for improved performance in stressful applied environments (e.g. sport and military)," the researchers concluded, "... the current study provides further support for the validity of expedient self-report measures that can be easily collected in applied environments."
_________________________________
Vine, S., Uiga, L., Lavric, A., Moore, L., Tsaneva-Atanasova, K., & Wilson, M. (2015). Individual reactions to stress predict performance during a critical aviation incident Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 28 (4), 467-477 DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2014.986722
--further reading--
If your plane gets lost you'd better hope there's an orienteer on board
Improving aircraft safety
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Sorry To Say, But Your Pilot's Decisions Are Likely Just As Irrational As Yours And Mine
Flying a plane is no trivial task, but adverse weather conditions are where things get seriously challenging. Tragically, a contributing factor to many fatal accidents is when the pilot has misjudged the appropriateness of the flying conditions. Now in...
- Day 6 Of Digest Super Week: Meet The Supertaskers
We study SuperTaskers Dr Jason WatsonMy collaborator Dr. David Strayer and I began looking for individual differences in multitasking ability in 2006-2007. We were looking for any attentional control variables that might predict who shows more or less...
- If Your Plane Gets Lost You'd Better Hope There's An Orienteer On Board
If you're planning on flying any time soon, you may want to look away now. A new study reports that trainee air pilots, including those with considerable experience, fell prey to an elementary mistake in a basic navigation task. Were they to commit...
- Deep Throats, Hacked Minds, And Sleepy Heads
First, a non-neuro "thank you" to The Washington Post and Mark Felt for the roles they played all those years ago. Today's lead editorial in the Post (free registration required). Second, a "thank you" to MindHacks.com for their kind words earlier...
- Neuroergonomics
From the September 2004 issue of The Monitor on Psychology comes this brief overview to a novel application of neuroscience: The baggage screener's brain scan The emerging field of neuroergonomics seeks to improve work safety and make everyday...