Please excuse me for being pedantic (after all l am a psychologist!) but
we can not teach someone to expand their range of attention as such but
we can teach principles for more rapidly shifting attention from one
task to another. It gets back to why we teach basic human factors - the
limited information capacity of the human brain and the need to start
simple, teach in small successive approximations so that each task,
knowledge etc becomes fixed / automatic thus freeing up working memory.
So teaching attention is about appropriate teaching methodology and
teaching the student how to learn.
Like kerry, l have used hypnosis to good effect in enabling students to
more rapidly shift their focus of attention.
The Senior psychologist of 2FTS RAAF put together an excellent paper for
students on means of developing perceptual speed. A few examples:
While driving, not the number plates of cars going the other way, square
the numbers and then sum the squares. Glance just as the other is
passing you to make it a speed thing.
Buy six to eight dice. Starting with four of them, throw them in a tight
pattern and in a glance take in the four numbers. Look away and repeat
thm out loud. Add the numbers together. Say the total out loud. Build up
to six to eight dice over time. learn to take the image in with a quick
glance. You are not only perceiving the dies, but you are operating on
them too.
And other variations, which incorporate expanding the number of items,
operations that are consequitively worked upon. Visual imagery is a
number one facilitator for developing attention skills and one l think
that all pilots have used at some time. Its also as Doug often says (l
hope l am paraphrasing you correctly here) the more time
you spend practicing these skills day to day and under varying
conditions the more they will be there when you need them.
Regards,
Jo-Anne
Kerry Douglas wrote:
>
> At 07:36 15/04/98 -0400, you wrote:
> >
> >I've got a question for the group that has a different twist. I have heard,
> >read, and taught my students that focus of attention is important in
> >aviation. It was found to be the single best predictor of combat pilot
> >performance in Israel (Gopher and Kahneman, 1971). Many are still using it
> >in research using dichotic listening and visual tasks, as seen in the
> >Symposium presentations. I think that it is at the heart of attitude
> >management and judgment in civil aviation. Recently, I have been looking at
> >the ag pilot safety problem and listening to them talk, focus of attention
> >is one of their hardest tasks, especially when under fatigue or pressure
> >from economic, personal, environmental, or business sources.
> >
> >Can someone tell me how to teach pilots to control or focus their attention?
> >Also, can someone tell me how to test for attention control in a LOFT, LOS,
> >or MOST scenario that is realistic to flight. I have challenged my students
> >to this task but was wondering if any one out there can help us.
> >
> >By the way, all of the 9th Symposium proceedings (both hard copy and CD
> >versions) have now been mailed to those who have paid for them. If you have
> >not received yours, please let me know. Overseas people may need yet to wait
> >some time for hard copies.
> >
> >Finally, mark your calendars for the 10th Symposium on Aviation Psychology
> >-- May 2-7, 1999. The call for papers will go out in July this year.
> >
> >Dick Jensen
> >
> >
> Hi Dick,
> Regards to the part of your question about teaching pilots to focus their
> attention. I have found hypnosis techniques and bio feedback useful.
>
> Cheers
>
> Kerry