ABSTRACT
Ability and personality constructs, such as intelligence, psychomotor coordination, and conscientiousness, affect how pilots make decisions, how they interact with other crew members, how they use or misuse licit and illicit drugs, and how well they absorb and retain training. Like ability, and so many other human characteristics, everyone thinks they know what intelligence is, but it proves a rather difficult concept to define. The concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence were put forth by Raymond Cattell and were elaborated by his student John Horn. Fluid intelligence is the capacity to reason and solve novel problems, independent of any knowledge from the past. The Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM) is a nonverbal multiple choice test that is often used to assess fluid intelligence. Several alternatives to the hierarchical models of intelligence (such as the C–H–C model) based largely on the dissection of the general intelligence factor have been proposed.
