Performance of pilots and nonpilots on an attention-determined psychomotor task

The authors investigated the performance of pilots and nonpilots on an attention-determined psychomotor task. Twenty male military helicopter pilots and 20 male physical education students completed 5 blocks of 10 trials of focusing and shifting dart-throwing tasks; in each group, 10 participants started with the shifting task, and 10 started with the focusing task. Two 2X2X2X5 (Group X Order X Task X Trial Block) analyses of variance conducted for constant and variable errors as dependent variables revealed that the pilots were more effective than the students in learning to be more accurate and that the focusing-shifting order resulted in more consistent scores. The authors discuss the preliminary results with respect to applying similar psychomotor, attention-determined tasks as possible future screening methods for military pilots.