Beyond performance: the role of task demand, effort, and individual differences in ab initio pilots

Aviation safety depends on the skill and expertise of pilots to meet the task demands of flying an aircraft in an effective and efficient manner. During flight training, students may respond differently to imposed task demands based on individual differences in capacity, physiological arousal, and effort. To ensure that pilots achieve a common desired level of expertise, training programs should account for individual differences to optimize pilot performance. This study investigates the relationship between task performance and physiological correlates of effort in ab initio pilots. Twenty-four participants conducted a flight simulator task with three difficulty levels and were asked to rate their perceived demand and effort using the NASA TLX. We recorded heart rate, EEG brain activity, and pupil size to assess changes in the participants’ mental and physiological states across different task demands. We found that, despite group-level correlations between performance error and physiological responses, individual differences in physiological responses to task demands reflected different levels of participant effort and task efficiency. These findings suggest that physiological monitoring of student pilots might provide beneficial insights to flight instructors to optimize pilot training at the individual level.