ABSTRACT
This chapter does not set out to be an encyclopaedic review of the research on human performance and stress. Rather, its focus is on the effects of stress on specific psychological functions important in aviation. The research that will be discussed here includes both 'real world' accounts of pilots engaged in actual air operations, and more generalized laboratory assessments of human psychological functioning in the presence of a variety of aversive conditions. From the researcher's point of view, studies of the latter type do of course have certain advantages: they provide easily quantifiable results, for example, and control the number of variables considered at one time. One issue addressed in this chapter concerns the ways in which the findings from such studies can shed light on performance in the complex, dynamic, multistressor environment of an aircraft cockpit. After identifying some of the psychomotor and cognitive functions that characterize various aspects of the pilot's task (see Table 3.1), the chapter goes on to explore what is known of the effects of stress upon these performance variables. These discussions are also relevant to the controller's task, insofar as there is significant overlap in the cognitive requirements of ATC and flight tasks.
