Cognitive assessment of USAF pilot training candidates.

BACKGROUND

Most intellectual and cognitive assessment of pilots is done with locally developed assessment devices. The United States Air Force currently uses the recently developed CogScreen (Aeromedical Edition) to assess these areas.

HYPOTHESES

There will be differences on the CogScreen across USAF student pilot candidates and commercial pilots.

METHODS

This paper presents the test scores of 512 USAF pilot training candidates who were tested with this commercially available, "off-the-shelf" product. Comparison data was abstracted from the test manual on commercial pilots.

RESULTS

Data from the new CogScreen (Aeromedical Edition) is provided and shows consistent differences between pilot training candidates and commercial pilots across reaction time, accuracy, throughput, and process measures.

DISCUSSION

The new CogScreen appears to be an appropriate device for the assessment of pilot candidates, student pilots, and pilots.