Situational Awareness: A Feasibility Investigation of Near-Threshold SkillsDevelopment

摘要

A decisive capability possessed by superior fighter-attac pilots is keensituational awareness. In this report, we examine the trainability of near-threshold information acquisition and processing skills that appear to be vital to heightened situational awareness. The investigation served two purposes: (a) determine the effects or near-threshold training on target detection, recognition, and identification performance; and (b) assess the general transfer of this training to velocity discrimination and peripheral vision two-flash threshold performance. Ten flight-qualified AFROTC cadets served as trainees. Each trainee received 5,040 near-threshold training trials over five consecutive days. The findings indicate that near-threshold skills are trainable. Group and individual learning curves reflected consistent improvement in target detection, recognition, and identification accuracy at target durations down to 33 ms. Statistically significant differences were found between group baseline and post-training performance.