Conceptual Structures in Fighter Pilots

This paper reviews continuing work on defining and measuring conceptual structures of critical flight information in fighter pilots. Psychometric methods are used to describe conceptual structures, and experimental tasks and discriminant analyses are used to validate the results of the psychometric procedures. Network structures allow for reliable classification of subjects into groups with different flying experiences. The networks also allow information to be organized into lists that are easy to remember in order. Multidimensional spatial structures also allow for reliable classification of individuals into groups. The optimum dimensionality of the Multidimensional Scaling solutions was studied and found to be four dimensions. Procedures for reducing the amount of data necessary to define distinguishable conceptual structures were investigated, and substantial reduction appears to be possible without appreciable loss of information. The findings from this research are relevant to training-program design. (Author)