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craig(at)craigandjean.com
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 Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:44 am Post subject: Off Topic: Experience tops youth in study on aging pilots |
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The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/27/BAGCGOBHLD1.D
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Tuesday, February 27, 2007 (SF Chronicle) HEALTH AND SCIENCE/Experience tops
youth in study on aging pilots Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer
Experience proved more durable than youth in a study released Monday on
the effects of aging on airplane pilots.
Researchers affiliated with Stanford University and the Veterans
Administration in Palo Alto studied pilot performance in flight simulators
over three years. The study looked at general aviation pilots between the
ages of 40 and 69 when the study began, rated in three different skill
levels -- novices or recreational pilots, pilots rated for instrument
flight, and certified flight instructors or professional air-transport
pilots.
Not surprisingly, the most highly skilled pilots scored best as the
testing began, and their performance held up as the testing was repeated
during the three years. At the same time, the older pilots generally had
lower scores than younger pilots in the same skill category.
As the experiment continued, however, the older pilots improved more than
the younger pilots. Overall, pilots in their 60s improved on average over
the three years, while those in their 40s and 50s declined.
The younger pilots still had an edge despite the narrowing age gap. But
the findings suggest that people with the most expertise who stay active in
their careers don't necessarily lose ground when they reach traditional
retirement age.
Instead, the study suggested that "crystallized knowledge" based on years
of practice may allow pilots -- like musicians or athletes, and possibly
many other categories of "older expert workers" -- to adapt surprisingly
well to the declines of normal aging.
The results come as the Federal Aviation Administration is drafting a
proposed rule change to allow commercial jet pilots in the United States to
stay in the cockpit beyond age 60, the current maximum, until they reach age
65. International rules already allow airline pilots to fly until age 65, so
long as a pilot younger than 60 also is present. Pilots in general aviation
can fly at any age, as long as they pass regular medical tests.
The age restriction forced the Stanford-VA study to exclude commercial
airline pilots, because lack of practice might have skewed the results if
retired pilots were tested over time. Nor was the study set up to find any
optimal age for any class of pilot.
The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Neurology.
Joy Taylor, lead author and assistant director of the Aging Clinical
Research Center, a joint project of Stanford and the Palo Alto VA, said
there's no doubt that people decline on some mental agility measures as they
get older, beginning long before traditional retirement age.
"For many years, it's been known some cognitive abilities really start to
decline after about the age of 25," she said. "The question is, what does it
really matter in the real world if you are a little slower performing on
some cognitive test?"
A few milliseconds may not hamper effectiveness at a job that expects
life-or-death decisions to be made not only quickly, but appropriately,
"based on prior knowledge," she said.
Other studies have tried to compare older and younger pilots, but the
Palo Alto researchers appear to be the first careful attempt to track the
same group of pilots over a period of time. Researchers said they were
surprised to detect an apparent improvement with advancing age, although
that was only for the most-skilled individuals.
Taylor and her colleagues put 118 pilots between the ages of 40 and 69
when the study began through a rigorous flight-simulation test once a year
for three years.
The equipment mimicked the cockpit of a small, single-engine
fixed-propeller aircraft flying above flat terrain with surrounding
mountains. Pilots heard mock commands from air-traffic controllers and had
to deal with randomly generated "emergency situations," such as engine
malfunctions and suddenly approaching airplanes.
Scores were recorded automatically as the pilots maneuvered around air
traffic, responded to flight control commands, scanned instruments and came
in for landings. Flight simulations were followed by a battery of cognitive
tests.
As the tests were repeated, the scores of pilots in their 60s held up
better than those in their 40s and 50s, and actually improved in terms of
overall flight performance, mostly because the older pilots did better over
time at traffic avoidance.
Age alone could be used to predict flight performance to some degree,
Taylor said, but many factors besides "raw cognitive abilities" came into
play to determine competency.
Cognitive quickness, Taylor noted, "is relevant to flying an airplane,
but so is expertise."
Other experts said the study highlights the need for better competency
testing in many critical jobs as the workforce ages and people try to work
past traditional retirement age.
"People will be getting a little slower, maybe their working memory is
slowing down a little bit, and maybe even their novel problem-solving is
slowing down a little bit," said Joel Kramer, a psychologist in memory and
aging research at UCSF. "But how do you decide on an arbitrary age cutoff?"
An editorial in the same medical journal also said the study had
implications "well beyond aviation," noting the rapid aging of the
population means increasing numbers of older workers in critical
occupations.
"It is time to reconsider fixed age limits for the workplace and consider
transitioning to competency-based evaluations of performance," said the
editorial authors, Dr. Joseph L. Sirven of the Mayo Clinic and Daniel G.
Morrow of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. "Better simulation
techniques need to be developed not only in aviation, but also in medicine
and other careers where public safety is at risk."
FAA officials declined to be interviewed but invited the study authors to
submit their data during the public comment period on the proposed rule
change.
E-mail Carl Hall at chall(at)sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle
do not archive
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dredmoody(at)cox.net
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| Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:01 am Post subject: Off Topic: Experience tops youth in study on aging pilots |
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It's like P. J. O'Rourke once said, "Experience, guile, and ruthlessness beat youth, innocence, and a bad haircut everytime".
Dred
Definitely Do Not Archive
[quote] ---
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Gig Giacona
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1416
Location: El Dorado Arkansas USA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: Off Topic: Experience tops youth in study on aging pilot |
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I was going to use the exact same PJ quote. You beat me to it.
DO NOT ARCHIVE
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