Cooperation and mental states neurophysiological assessment for pilots’ training and expertise evaluation

The aim of the study was to validate a methodology for professional pilots’ neurophysiological assessment to improve training program tailoring and management. In particular, the assessment focused on quantifying (i) mental workload, (ii) stress level (iii) and the cooperation degree between the two members of the crews. Two groups of pilots were involved in the experiments: Experienced and Unexperienced. Additionally, the Instructor was responsible to provide subjective evaluation about the pilots’ mental states and cooperation. During the entire flight simulations, the pilots’ brain activity was acquired through the Electroencephalography (EEG). The results demonstrated that it is possible to quantify operators’ mental states and degree of cooperation while dealing with flight simulations under realistic settings. Pilots’ mental workload and stress behavioral levels resulted to be positively and significantly correlated with the corresponding neurophysiological measurements (all R > 0.6, all p < 0.05), while cooperation was observed to be higher (p < 0.05) for the Experienced than the Unexperienced. Although the results are preliminary, they show how the capability of quantifying pilots’ mental states and cooperation while dealing with tasks will provide the instructors with additional and objective information. In particular, this information would allow for tailoring the training sessions based on crew’s behavior.