Stress Training Enhances Pilot Performance During a Stressful Flying Task

This study investigated whether stress training introduced during the acquisition of simulator-based flight skills enhances pilot performance during subsequent stressful flight operations in an actual aircraft. Thirty participants with no previous flying experience were assigned either to a stress-trained treatment group or a control group. Stress training consisted of pairing skill acquisition in a flight simulator with stress coping mechanisms in the presence of a cold pressor. Control participants received identical skill acquisition training but without stress training. Performance was then compared between groups during flight in a Piper Archer aircraft. Participants who received flight simulator stress training demonstrated better performance in a stressful flying task than those in the control group. The results of this study indicate that stress training during the acquisition of flight skills may enhance pilot performance in stressful operational flight and therefore, might mitigate the contribution of pilot stress to aircraft mishaps.

[1]  Stanley N. Roscoe,et al.  Incremental Transfer Effectiveness , 1971 .

[2]  R. R. Mackie,et al.  EFFECTS OF HOURS OF SERVICE REGULARITY OF SCHEDULES, AND CARGO LOADING ON TRUCK AND BUS DRIVER FATIGUE , 1978 .

[3]  Robert W. Swezey,et al.  Readings in training and simulation : a 30-year perspective , 2001 .

[4]  M. Rosenbaum.  Individual differences in self-control behaviors and tolerance of painful stimulation. , 1980, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[5]  Christopher K. McClernon.  Stress Effects on Transfer from Virtual Environment Flight Training to Stressful Flight Environments , 2009 .

[6]  Scott A. Shappell,et al.  The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System : HFACS : final report. , 2000 .

[7]  James E. Driskell,et al.  Does Stress Training Generalize to Novel Settings? , 2001, Hum. Factors.

[8]  Valerie J. Gawron.  Human performance measures handbook , 2000 .

[9]  Thomas R. Carretta,et al.  Transfer of Training Effectiveness in Flight Simulation: 1986 to 1997. , 1998 .

[10]  Herbert H. Bell,et al.  Evaluating the Effectiveness of Flight Simulators for Training Combat Skills: A Review , 1998 .

[11]  E Salas,et al.  The effect of stress inoculation training on anxiety and performance. , 1996, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[12]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[13]  Eduardo Salas,et al.  Flight Simulator Training Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis , 1992 .

[14]  G. Keinan,et al.  Training Effective Performance in Stressful Situations: Three Approaches and Implications for Combat Training , 1992 .

[15]  D. Overton.  State-dependent learning produced by depressant and atropine-like drugs , 2004, Psychopharmacologia.

[16]  Christopher K. McClernon.  Stress Training Efficacy in an Aviation Context , 2009 .

[17]  E. Thorndike,et al.  The influence of improvement in one mental function upon the efficiency of other functions. (I). , 1901 .

[18]  C. Osgood.  The similarity paradox in human learning; a resolution. , 1949, Psychological review.

[19]  Immanuel Barshi,et al.  The Emergency and Abnormal Situations Project , 2003 .