Improving situation awareness and performance of flight students by conceptual and procedural training

Learning to fly an airplane requires both precise motor skill development and higher order cognitive skill development. Because both of these skills need to be learned in aviation, a training curriculum should be developed that facilitates the best approach to learning each respective flight skill. Procedural training has been shown to be effective for successful performance in situations that are typical and routine. Conceptual training has been shown to be effective for successful performance in situations that are less typical, non routine, and for situations that require higher order cognitive skills (Bibby & Payne, 1993; Hockey, Sauer, & Watsell, 2007; Wickens, 2003). Procedural training teaches one how to “work a system,†and conceptual training teaches one “how a system works.†Conceptual training also helps one develop better situation awareness (Endsley 2006). Experiment 1 divided 48 participants with no flight experience into a control group that received flight practice only, a procedural training group that received procedural training plus flight practice, and a conceptual training group that received procedural training plus conceptual training plus flight practice. Experiment 2 divided 48 recently licensed private pilots and student pilots into a control group, a procedural training group, and a conceptual training group. For both experiments, participants received training on how to fly traffic patterns and how to land an airplane. Participants were tested on traffic pattern performance, landing performance, and situation awareness. For flight performance, participants were tested on typical and atypical maneuvers. For situation awareness, participants were tested on routine and non routine situations. Conceptual training was the best training approach for traffic pattern performance, situation awareness, and landing performance for the student pilots and private pilots. Conceptual training also showed some benefits, but to a lesser degree, for participants who had no prior aviation experience.