Current research and trends in aviation psychology in Poland

Basic trends of research carried out in Poland during the past decade within the Military Institute of Aviation Medicine were reviewed. Aviation psychological research has concentrated around four important problems: 1) personality determinants of the occupational functioning of pilots including (a) temperamental factors and the occupational adaptation of pilots, (b) personality determinants (i.e., manifested attitudes towards vocation) of the occupational adjustment of pilots, (c) personality correlates of the psychosomatic costs of pilots' vocational adjustments; 2) perceptual efficiency mechanisms of task performance in flight simulators--the research objective was to study visualmotor mechanisms associated with compensatory perception in the process of training for aviation tasks requiring visual-motor coordination; eye movements were measured as an index of perception of visual information. 3) psychological criteria in predicting success in pilot training--the external criterion was the assessment of progress in practical flight training; and 4) computer assisted psychological research.