Responding to an Unexpected In-Flight Event: Physiological Arousal, Information Processing, and Performance.

Objective: The study was designed to investigate whether a simulated unexpected abnormal flight event can lead to startle and explore differences in behavioral responses between expected and unexpected abnormal flight events.

Background: Recent research suggests startle (an autonomic response to an acute stimulus) following unexpected abnormal flight events can impact pilot performance and can increase the probability of a negative outcome following the event.

Method: Information processing, physiological measures, and performance differences between responses to expected and unexpected flight events were compared.