Cognition, Aging, and the Soaring Pilotby Key Dismukes

Matt Herron's article in the Septem-ber 2015 issue of Soaring reminds

us we should be thinking about whetherwe can continue to fly safely as we en-ter our senior years. Fortunately, severallarge research literatures provide infor-mation that can help us make that as-sessment wisely and help us extend ourflying time as much as can be done safe-ly. I do not have space in this article todiscuss those literatures in detail or tech-nical depth; rather I will give you a high-level summary and raise some questionsto think about. Let's start with this one:

True or false? "I continue to holdan FAA third-class medical and hada recent flight review with a CFIG, soclearly my flying is not at risk, eventhough I am 76."

Well, maybe, maybe not, let's see.What I will talk about here is called

normal aging, the inevitable changesthat affect us all throughout our lifespanbut which usually do not become seriouschallenges until the last several decadesof life. In many ways it is the normalaging changes - particularly changes incognition - that are the most insidious,affecting us all in subtle and complexways w fliay overlook or may assumewill noi 'vftct our flying.

(You y hg whippersnappers, do notthink this is a topic you can ignore formany decades; some important cognitivefunctions begin to decline even by ourthirties, which is why mathematicianstypically do their best theoretical work intheir twenties.) I will not talk about age-related pathologies or changes in visionand hearing, subjects treated in Dr. DanJohnson's superb monthly columns.

Cognition refers to how the brain/mind takes in, processes, and uses infor-mation to perceive, remember, think, andtake action. Many aspects of cognitionhave been studied extensively, but oneparticular distinction is especially rel-evant to piloting performance. We speakof two basic modes of cognitive process-ing: executive and automatic. Age affectsthese two modes differentially.

Executive processes, closely associatedwith attention, working memory, anddeliberation, are slow and effortful. Theseprocesses operate serially (one step at atime) and can handle only a very smallamount of information at any moment.Executive processing is required whenwe are learning new skills, dealing withnovel or difficult situations (e.g., dealingwith a jammed aileron), planning futureactivities, or solving problems. Dealingwith emergencies, equipment failures,or high workload situations is challeng-ing in part because these situations oftenoverwhelm the limited volume of infor-mation our executive processes can pro-cess at a time.

In contrast, automatic processing de-velops over time from practicing specifictasks repeatedly. It is fast and efficientand requires little mental effort, and inmost situations is robust and reliable.Automatic processing underlies humans'extraordinary capacity for recognizingfamiliar patterns.

Think about when you were firstlearning to drive a car or fly an airplane.Initially, it was difficult to keep up withall that had to be done, to perform eachsub-task smoothly and correctly, andyou probably found the mental effortrequired to be quite high. But over time,as you became proficient, the varioustasks seemed to become easier, even-tually stick and rudder coordinationseemed to happen without trying veryhard. Actually, the tasks themselves didnot change, what happened is that withpractice automatic processing took over,procedural memory guided action, andmuch less executive processing was re-quired. Performance became smoothand fluid and you were able to thinkabout other aspects of flying while ma-nipulating the controls. (Hmm, is thatdry lake a good landout spot?)

Piloting involves diverse tasks whichrequire differing combinations of skill,knowledge, and thinking, and thus drawupon executive and automatic processesto different degrees. Stick and rudder

skills, with practice, become largely au-tomatic, but managing unfamiliar situa-tions, dealing with emergencies, solvingproblems, and juggling heavy workloaddepend heavily on the executive mode.Decision-making lies between the twomodes. It can be fairly automatic whendealing with familiar situations, such aswhen to deploy spoilers in the landingpattern. But in other situations, such asjudging how far to penetrate into a circlein a contest turn area task, decision-mak-ing draws heavily on executive processes.

Aging affects automatic and execu-tive processes quite differently. The goodnews is that automatic processing is fair-ly resilient to aging; consequently well-learned stick and rudder skills can remainquite high with consistent practice evenin our eighties. The not-so-good news isthat executive processing inevitably de-clines with age. Information-processingspeed slows down, and the rate at whichwe can take in and learn new informa-tion slows down. Multi-tasking ability,reasoning, problem-solving, and recall offactual information all decline substan-tially. Consequently, an older pilot mayperform superbly on a vanilla flight re-view but be at risk in seldom-practicedsituations and under high workload.

The decline in executive processesactually starts in our twenties, thoughtypically we do not start noticing it untilwe are in our early sixties, by which timethe amount of loss is substantial. But waita minute, perhaps you are saying, thisdoes not square with real-world experi-ence; I know that professionals in manydomains perform quite well long pasttheir sixties. Pablo Casals and ArthurRubenstein, for example, gave profoundperformances well into their eighties.

Several reasons account for this appar-ent difference between the well-docu-mented decline of measurable executivefunctions throughout adulthood andthe impressive performance of some in-dividuals until late in life. In youth, weprobably have considerable cognitivereserve; most tasks do not require maxi-

October 2015 • Soaring

mum cognitive ability for prolongedperiods (theoretical mathematics be-ing one clear exception). And of course,cognitive ability is only one factor; evenin intellectually demanding professions,other factors, such as motivation, areimportant. Also, as individuals age, theyoften modify their activities to makethem less demanding; older drivers, forexample, often stop driving at night orin heavy traffic.

Perhaps most important for preserv-ing performance in the face of decliningcognitive ability is the role of experience.For example, a low-time cross-countrysoaring pilot faced with an imminentlandout may find the mental workloadof assessing potential landing fields quitehigh, not to mention stressful. In con-trast, a high-time soaring pilot may drawupon extensive experience in similarsituations, automatically retrieving frommemory the best action for the situation.For this experienced pilot, the mentalworkload is much lower, and perhaps thestress is less because he or she knows thatthe situation can be handled. (Look for

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a later article on the effects of stress onpilot performance.) Fortunately, pilots -like all skilled experts - can build up anenormous body of domain knowledgeand procedural skills over time.

Thus, we have a trade-off: the long,slow decline of executive processes overthe decades versus the steady growth ofexperience for those who practice theircraft consistently. At some point, inevi-tably, the two curves cross, and the netresult is eroding ability. Where exactlythe two curves cross varies greatly withthe individual, for several reasons. Therate of decline of executive processes dif-fers substantially among individuals andis affected by genes, physical health, ex-ercise, diet, mental activities, and socialengagement. And of course individualsvary greatly in how much and how con-sistently they practice their skills overthe years. Clearly, a pilot who has flowna great deal every year throughout adult-hood is much better protected againstage-driven deterioration in performancethan pilots who fly only sporadically. Theupshot of all this is that no one-size-fits-all rule can tell us when it is time tostop flying or even when we should startchanging the kind of flying we do.

One might think that aviation acci-dent rates would tell us much of whatwe need to know about the effects of ageon pilot performance. A fair number ofstudies have examined accident rates as afunction of age, but unfortunately, theseare of limited help for those of us in the60-90 age range. It is difficult to sepa-rate out all the factors that co-vary withage, and the few well-designed epide-miological studies have focused mainlyon the age at which to require airlinepilots to retire. Even epidemiologicalstudies of accidents have not taken intoaccount the changes that older generalaviation pilots often voluntarily make inthe extent to which they fly in challeng-ing situations.

More informative for us are the studiesthat have examined pilots' performancein flight simulators, comparing groupsof pilots of different ages (cross-section-al studies) and also following changesin individual pilots' performance overtime (longitudinal studies). The effectsof age and experience have been exam-

ined on pilot performance aspects suchas accuracy of following ATC instruc-tions, aircraft control accuracy duringapproach in a cross-wind, appropriateland/go-around decisions in IFR, scan-ning of cockpit instruments, and avoid-ing conflicting VFR traffic. Even thesesimulation studies have inherent meth-odological limitations: only moderatefidelity simulators have been available,only a limited range of pilot tasks havebeen examined, and no studies of soar-ing performance have been published(to my knowledge). However, the data,which are fairly consistent across studies,are relevant to all pilots, so let's brieflyreview two of these studies.

The most extensive of these simula-tion studies has been conducted over aperiod of more than ten years by a teamat Stanford University and the VeteransAdministration. In one of their reportsTaylor, Kennedy, Noda, 6c Yesavage(2007) compared performance of pilotsin age groups 40-49, 50-59, and 60-69at three different levels of experience:VFR-rated only, instrument rated, orinstrument instructor/airline transportpilot (CFII/ATP). The performance ofeach age group was substantially lowerthan that of the younger groups, but inall three age groups the more experi-enced pilots performed better than thoseless experienced, partially compensatingfor the effect of age. In fact, the CFII/ATP 60-69 group appeared to per-form as well as less experienced pilotsin the 50-59 group. In a related study,Yesavage and his colleagues (2011) foundthat pilots with higher scores on labo-ratory tests of information processingspeed and executive function showed re-duced decline of simulator performanceover the four years they were studied.

The upshot of all this research is that,yes, we senior pilots should be concernedwith our ability to continue flying safelyas we age. We are especially vulnerablein situations that combine unfamiliar as-pects, high workload, time pressure, andhigh consequence of errors. Most at riskare older pilots with limited experienceand low currency. But keep in mind that,regardless of flight experience, risk variessubstantially among individuals; further,the level of risk varies considerably for

Soaring • October 2015

each individual as a function of the spe-cific task being performed.

There is some good news. Our ac-quired knowledge (the best place tofind a thermal when getting low) andprocedural skills (getting the most outof every turn in the thermal) can growthroughout the lifespan (though not asfast in our senior years). When not underheavy workload, older pilots can shine atjudgment and decision-making becauseof our experience with a broad range ofsituations, and - one hopes - we becomeless impetuous as we get older.

So, what's an old geezer pilot like meto do?

Several things can keep us flyinglonger with acceptable levels of safety.First, exercise regularly; a large bodyof research shows that consistent exer-cise slows the effects of aging, in part bykeeping the flow of oxygen to the brainopen. A healthy diet also helps, as doesworking with your physician to stay ontop of medical issues. We should contin-uously self-evaluate our performance inboth routine and challenging situations(not a bad idea for pilots of all ages!),and stay extremely current. Dependingon that self-evaluation we may find itwise to gradually reduce our exposureto high-workload, time-pressured situa-tions and reduce the complexity of thetype of flying we do.

Cultivating a deliberate, systematicapproach to everything we do aroundairplanes and using checklists religiouslycan help protect us against distractions,tunneling of attention, and forgettingto perform critical actions. When tak-ing passengers up, tell them about the"sterile cockpit" rule to prevent distract-ing conversation during critical phasesof flight such as take-off and landing.Extend the concept of the sterile cock-pit rule to rigging and performing thepositive control check. These protectivemeasures can help all pilots avoid mak-ing errors, but they are especially impor-tant as we get older.

How do I know when it's time to stopflying solo?

There is no simple answer to this ques-tion. You might consider keeping a self-

appraisal log: track instances of gettingbehind the airplane, getting confused,not noticing things, or forgetting to dothings, minor incidents, etc. We all ex-perience occasional incidents like theseeven when young; the point is to keeptrack of the trend. And keep track of thegood stuff too, to put it all in perspective.

Fly with a CFIG more than every twoyears. The FAA requirement for flightreviews is ridiculously inadequate. Air-line and military pilots train much morefrequently. Performing adequately on atypical flight review will not necessar-ily expose the subtle impairments to ex-ecutive cognitive functioning associatedwith age; these impairments may showup only in challenging and unpracticedsituations. Thus, we should ask our flightinstructors to challenge us meaningfully.(I know, I know, as an instructor myself, Ihate nothing more than having anotherinstructor point out my deficiencies; wejust have to put our egos aside.)

Finally, at some point, we may wantto ask: has it stopped being fun? Anhonest answer to this question may helpavoid a world of hurt.

About the Author: Key Dismukes retiredas Chief Scientist for Human Factors atNASA Ames Research Center. His researchaddressed the ability of experts to managechallenging situations, error vulnerability,risk management, prospective memory, at-tention management in multitasking, andlearning and memory. He holds ATP, B737

and Citation-type, and glider instructorratings and received the 2013 Laura TaborBarbourAir Safety Award.

Further ReadingAir Safety Institute. Aging and

the general aviation pilot. Retrievedfrom www.aopa.org/-/media/Files/.../Pilot...71302agingpilotreport.pdf 4 Au-gust 2015.

Salthouse, T. A. (2004). What andwhen of cognitive aging. Current Direc-tions in Psychological Science, 13,140-144.

Taylor, J. L., Kennedy, Q^ Noda, A.Sc Yesavage, J. A. (2007). Pilot age andexpertise predict flight simulator per-formance: A 3-year longitudinal study.Neurology, 68,648-654.

Tsang, P. S. (2003). Assessing cogni-tive aging in piloting. In Tsang, P. &.Vidulich, M. (eds), Principles of Prac-tice of Aviation Psychology, Mahwah,MJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 507-546.

Yesavage,). A., Jo, B., Adamson, M.M., Kennedy, Qy Noda, A., Hernan-dez, B., Zeitzer, J. J., Friedman, L. F.,Fairchild, K., Scanlong, B. K., Murphy,G., M. 8c Taylor, J. L. (2011). Initialcognitive performance predicts longi-tudinal aviator performance. Journal ofGerontology: Psychological Science, 10,444.453.

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