The STEP model: Characterizing simultaneous time effects on practice for flight simulator performance among...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Human factors engineering
• Gerontology

Background:

• Skill maintenance in middle-aged and older adults is crucial for real-world task performance.
• Understanding how practice and time intervals affect learning is vital for effective training design.
• Prior training and cognitive abilities can influence learning outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model the simultaneous effects of practice and interval on performance in simulated flight tasks.
• To examine how age, flight expertise, and cognitive abilities moderate practice and interval effects.
• To investigate the impact of cognitive processing speed and its variability on skill acquisition.

Main Methods:

• Utilized existing practice data from 263 middle-aged and older pilots across 5 simulated flights.
• Developed and applied a new Simultaneous Time Effects on Practice (STEP) model.
• Analyzed the influence of covariates: age, flight expertise, processing speed, and intraindividual variability (IIV).

Main Results:

• Demonstrated significant positive practice effects and negative interval effects on flight performance.
• Age negatively moderated the benefits of practice.
• Cognitive processing speed and IIV moderated practice and interval effects, impacting performance measures.

Conclusions:

• Practice and interval effects are evident in simulated flight tasks for older adults.
• Cognitive processing speed and IIV play a significant role in moderating training effects, even in high-functioning individuals.
• Findings inform the design of targeted training interventions for complex real-world tasks in aging populations.