Development Of Basic Cognitive Ability Test For Pilot Selection System Of Civil Aviation

Psychological selection has been used in talent selection for manyprofessions. Because of the particularity of the pilot career, besides of strictphysical examination, the candidates still must go through strict psychologicalselection. In many countries, the results of psychological selection has become aselecting standard in air forces and civil aviation companies and relatedagencies.In the process of pilot selection, obsoleting the candidates whose？psychological nature are not available for the pilot,that is to improve the overallquality of the pilot team, save the cost of training, develop the efficiency oftraining, ensure flight safety. In addition to psychological nature, highercognitive ability is also the base for the training and safety in flight. Currently, the People’s Republic Air Force of China has a set of relativelycomplete psychological selection system in the process of pilot selection.Though civil aviation companies and other institutions introduced foreignpsychological selection systems or developed the systems by themselves, thesesystems were not promoted well for various reasons. One important reason isthat there is no universal standard in domestic commercial pilot psychologicalselection systems, which didn’t make the psychological selection systems intowidespread using.This aim of our study is to design a set of psychological selection for civilaviation pilot system,（based on）related theories of psychology and the pilotselection in our country and abroad, with the equipment of pilot selection in airforce. The system involves basic cognitive assessment and personality test. Thisstudy focuses on designing basic cognitive ability test for the selection of airlinepilots.This research is divided into three parts:First, cognitive ability tests for screening with high-risk groups of schizophreniaand depression were to be designed.Objective: The aim is to screen for schizophrenia and depression at higherrisk in the pilot candidates through the cognitive assessment. Methods:236freshmen from a military university, were divided into two groups by the safetyrandom method. There is no significant difference between two groups. Everyone of two groups took part in three cognitive ability tests. The results of the testwere analyzed for normal test and the item analysis with the software ofSPSS17.0. Results: the result of Independent-Sample Test of the two types ofSMT, is p <0.01; the results of Independent-Sample Test of the two types of WT and the two types of CPT are p>0.05. in SMT2, The first four items aspracticing, processing the remaining subject test results by item analysis,thediscrimination is greater than0.40, the difficulty is between0.55-0.60, theseitems are according with psychological test theory and can be used to test. Thedifficulty and discrimination of WT and CPT are not according withpsychological test theory.Conclusion: SMT2can be usd in the psychologicalselection only.Second, basic cognitive ability test for civil aviation psychological selection ofpilots were to be designed preliminarilyObjective: basic cognitive ability tests for civil aviation psychologicalselection of pilots were designed preliminarily, and were amended through thepre-test. Methods:1234freshmen from a military university,, were divided intoseven group by completely randomized design. There was no significantdifference in testees of any group. Every group took part in2or3basiccognitive tests, totaling19tests. The test data were analysed with the softwareof SPSS17.0for normality test and item analysis. Results: the discrimination ofall the tests is among0.15and0.53, the difficulty is among0.37and0.98.Conclusion: screening out VST (color); VMT (graphic); ACT (red and white);SST2; IUT1; CAT; RT; DRT，the8tests were going to be used in the next stepof the study.Third, test reliability and validity of the8testsObjective: test reliability and validity of the8tests. Methods:150sophomores of a military university took part in8tests. The tests data wereanalysed with SPSS17.0for normality test,item analysis,reliability test andvalidity test. Results: split-half reliabilitys of the8test are greater than 0.65.Although being adjusted and modified, the differentiations of VST(color))andACT(red and white) are still less than0.30,and the difficulties isgreater than0.65, so the two test didn’t accord with psychological test theory.Conclusion:the study determined6basic cognitive texts,four factors wereextracted from the6tests with the factor analysis: perception independencefactor, the distribution of attention-judge factor, visual short-term memory factor,words understand-space logic factor.Conclusion:According to the difficulty, the differentiation, the reliability and validity,the characteristics of the equipment in application, the six basic cognitive testswere selected for the commercial airline pilot psychological selection system,naming VMT (graphics), SST2, IUT1, CAT, RT, DRT.SMT2. accorded withpsychological test theory.Further experiment is needed to determine whether itcan apply screening out high-risk groups of schizophrenia and depression fromapplicants..