Meta Analysis of Aircraft Pilot Selection Measures

Abstract : For this research, the meta-analytic procedures described by Hunter and Schmidt in 1990 were applied to a database of 476 correlations based on an overlapping sample of 432,324 cases. These correlations were obtained from a review of the research literature on aircrew selection published from 1920 to 1990. Over 200 studies that dealt with aircrew selection were identified. Of that number, 69 reported correlations between some independent measure and a pilot training performance criterion. Analyses were conducted of the overall aggregated set of correlations and subsets selected on the basis of date of study, type of predictor measure, type of aircraft, and sample characteristics. These analyses showed a decline in the mean validity correlations obtained over the previous 50 years. In addition, differences in the mean correlations were observed among the various types of predictor measures. In general, job sample measures were the best predictors of performance, followed by psychomotor coordination and biographical inventories. Possible applications of the results in the interpretation of previous research and in the design of future research are discussed.

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