Pilot-Candidate Selection Method: Sources of Validity

Abstract

Six hundred seventy-eight Air Force pilot training candidates were tested with a paper-and-pencil aptitude battery and computer-administered tests of psychomotor skills, information processing, and attitude toward risk. A self-report of flying experience was also collected. These data were used in regression analyses to determine which variables provided the best prediction of two flying criteria: pass-fail flying training, and class rank at the end of flying training. The paper-and-pencil tests were found to be the best predictors. The measures of flying experience, psychomotor skills, and attitude toward risk incremented the prediction of the criteria above the prediction provided by the paper-and-pencil tests by 23%. Computer-administered information-processing measures were not found to be incremental to the other variables in the prediction of the criteria.