Objective: For selection practitioners, it seems important to assess the level of mental resources invested in order to perform a demanding task. In this study, we investigated the potential of pupil size measurement to discriminate the most proficient pilot students from the less proficient.
Background: Cognitive workload is known to influence learning outcome. More specifically, cognitive difficulties observed during pilot training are often related to a lack of efficient mental workload management.
Method: Twenty pilot students performed a laboratory multitasking scenario, composed of several stages with increasing workload, while their pupil size was recorded. Two levels of pilot students were compared according to the outcome after 2 years of training: high success and medium success.
Results: Our findings suggested that task-evoked pupil size measurements could be a promising predictor of flight training difficulties during the 2-year training. Indeed, high-level pilot students showed greater pupil size changes from low-load to high-load stages of the multitasking scenario than medium-level pilot students. Moreover, average pupil diameters at the low-load stage were smallest for the high-level pilot students.
Conclusion: Following the neural efficiency hypothesis framework, the most proficient pilot students supposedly used their mental resources more efficiently than the least proficient while performing the multitasking scenario.
Application: These findings might introduce a new way of managing selection processes complemented with ocular measurements. More specifically, pupil size measurement could enable identification of applicants with greater chances of success during pilot training.
Keywords: eye behavior; individual differences; mental workload; neural efficiency; pilot training.