Informational Approach to Skill Transfer

摘要

This research program studied the nature of fundamental skills underlying the expertise of aircraft pilots. The research program included a review of the issues facing flight instruction. The specific tasks of landing a light aircraft and of navigating an aircraft through an unfamiliar area were selected for intensive study. The experimental projects undertaken in this program used a flight simulation system developed around a real time computer generated visual display. Two experimental paradigms were exploited. One was used to explore the visual information and skills used to support the aircraft landing task. As a means of identifying critical sources of information, experiments with experienced pilots examined how distortions in the simulated visual scene affected landing performance. The second paradigm evaluated transfer in a mission rehearsal task. A navigational database was developed and displayed via the visual simulation system. Flight students were taught navigational skills under different experimental conditions and were then tested in a realistic navigation condition.