New methods to evaluate the human operator reliability were tested with participation of 27 students of the Air Traffic Control Faculty at the Civil Aviation Academy. One of the proposed criteria is reactivity of the sympathetic cardiovascular regulation as determined during a cold hypoxic-hypercapnic exposure. By this criterion, the subjects divided into a reactive and a super-reactive group. Subjects of the "reactive " group demonstrated much better efficiency on a simulator, whereas subjects of the "super-reactive" group developed an inadequate sympathetic reaction to the rest-to-work transition revealed by a high activation of the parasympathetic component. Information perception was rated with the method of competing fields of vision aimed at evaluating the plasticity of the higher nervous system.