Development of an Aviation Emergency Coping Ability Evaluation Instrument

Objective: To develop an evaluation system on the emergency coping ability that is very important for effective performance in many emergency or extremely tasks, especially in aviation. Methods: An evaluation system and related hardware on emergency coping ability based on continuous tracking task and psychophysiology measurement were developed. The reversed operation was used to provide emergency situation. A total of 13 pilots completed the continuous tracking task. Performance which was measured by the average distance deviated from the target track and heart rate, heart rate variability indexes were recorded by the system and were analyzed for the validity. Results: Tracking performance of norm tracking task are significantly higher than those of different reversed tracking phases, especially that of the first six seconds. The participants adapted to the reversed operation gradually after 6 s. Mean heartbeat rate and LF/HF ratio also increased in reversed tracking phase. Conclusions: Index of emergency coping ability could be derived from the difference between tracking performance and psychophysiology change of norm tracking task and reversed tracking phase. The emergency situation model and evaluation system were developed and validated.