Performance of pilots and nonpilots on an attention-determined psychomotortask

The authors investigated the performance of pilots and nonpilots on an atte ntion-determined psychomotor task. Twenty male military helicopter pilots a nd 20 male physical education students completed 5 blocks of 10 trials of f ocusing and shifting dart-throwing tasks; in each group, 10 participants st arted with the shifting task, and 10 started with the focusing task. Two 2 x 2 x 2 x 5 (Group x Order x Task x Trial Block) analyses of variance condu cted for constant and variable errors as dependent variables revealed that the pilots were more effective than the students in learning to be more acc urate and that the focusing-shifting order resulted in more consistent scor es. The authors discuss the preliminary results with respect to applying si milar psychomotor, attention-determined tasks as possible future screening methods for military pilots.