Air Force Pilot Expertise Assessment during Unusual Attitude Recovery Flight

Abstract

Pilot training and expertise are key aspects in aviation. A traditional way of evaluating pilot expertise is to measure performance output. However, this approach provides a narrow view of the pilot’s capacity, especially with regard to mental and emotional profile. The aim of this study is hence to investigate whether neurophysiological data can be employed as an additional objective measure to assess the expertise of pilots. In this regard, it has been demonstrated that mental effort can be used as an indirect measure of operator expertise and capacity. An increase in mental effort, for instance, can automatically result in a decrease in the remaining capacity of the operator. To better investigate this aspect, we ask two groups of Italian Air Force pilots, experienced (Experts) and unexperienced (Novices), to undergo unusual attitude recovery flight training simulations. Their behavioral (unusual attitude recovery time), subjective (mental effort demand perception) and neurophysiological data (Electroencephalogram, EEG; Electrocardiogram, ECG) are collected during the entire flight simulations. Although the two groups do not exhibit differences in terms of unusual attitude recovery time and mental effort demand perception, the EEG-based mental effort index shows how Novices request significantly higher mental effort during unusual conditions.

Neurophysiological Assessment of An Innovative Maritime Safety System in Terms of Ship Operators’ Mental Workload, Stress, and Attention in the Full Mission Bridge Simulator

“…The ship operators' EEG signals were recorded by the digital monitoring system LiveAmp (Brain Products, Germany) with a sampling frequency of 125 (Hz). The eight water-based recording electrodes were properly placed over the frontal and parietal brain areas commonly considered for mental state assessment [30,35,48,49]. In particular, the EEG channels were the following ones: AFz, AF3, AF4, AF7, AF8, Pz, P3, P4, all referenced to the left mastoid and grounded to the right mastoid.…”

“…[ 21 , 30 , 31 , 32 ] demonstrated how humans’ attention and vigilance can be characterized by a synthetic EEG-based index. Regarding the mental workload, several studies [ 12 , 33 , 34 , 35 ] showed the reliability of specific EEG-features to the humans’ mental workload while performing different activities in operational environments. Concerning stress evaluation, a plethora of scientific research revealed the sensibility of EEG correlates to such variations in mental state while performing different operational tasks in both real and realistic environments [ 36 , 37 ].…”

Wearable Technologies for Electrodermal and Cardiac Activity Measurements: A Comparison between Fitbit Sense, Empatica E4 and Shimmer GSR3+

“…Therefore, the scientific community has also largely started to investigate the reliability of such wearable technologies in evaluating neurophysiological and autonomic parameters. In this context, several scientific works demonstrated the reliability of wearable devices, such as the Empatica E4, in collecting Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals [9][10][11][12]. As demonstrated by different previous works [4,10,[13][14][15], the EDA corresponds to a consistent biomarker of the stress level, while the PPG-derived parameters, such as the Heart Rate (HR) and the Heart Rate Variability (HRV), were significantly correlated to the mental workload and emotional state variations [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

A Neuroergonomic Approach Fostered by Wearable EEG for the Multimodal Assessment of Drivers Trainees

“…To this regard, new effective solutions may be provided by the emerging field of the applied neuroscience and neuroergonomics [11][12][13][14][15]. It has been widely demonstrated how the measurement of human neurophysiological activities, such as electroencephalography (EEG), electroculography (EOG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and hearing activity by means of photopletismography (PPG), could allow to obtain useful insights and objective information about the cognitive and emotional dimensions of user's experience [16][17][18][19][20].…”