Assessing the influence of operational factors on the perceived structure of real-world scenes viewed during low-altitude, high-speed flight.

Previous research indicates that pilots of most jet-fighter aircraft attend to similar elements of the natural flight environment when flying at low altitudes. However, some evidence suggests that differences may exist for pilots of certain specific types of aircraft. The present experiment examined the influence of operational factors on the perceived structure of real-world scenes viewed during low-altitude flight. Multidimensional scaling analyses with stimuli consisting of videotape segments of low-altitude flight over a variety of real-world terrains revealed differences in perceived environmental structure for pilots assigned to different types of jet-fighter aircraft. These results provide evidence that perceptual learning evolves differently under different operational conditions and suggests that training programs should be designed to reflect those differences.