{"id":23533,"date":"2022-09-27T01:14:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T01:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=23533"},"modified":"2022-09-27T01:14:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T01:14:49","slug":"siu-researchers-pioneer-use-of-psychology-to-optimize-student-pilots-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/illinois\/siu-researchers-pioneer-use-of-psychology-to-optimize-student-pilots-success\/%20","title":{"rendered":"SIU Researchers Pioneer Use of Psychology to Optimize Student Pilots\u2019 Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Seeking to optimize performance: Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty Eric Lee, left, assistant professor in psychology, and Irene Miller, assistant professor in aviation management, are involved in research to examine whether sports psychology skills and techniques can help student pilots get in a good mindset and optimize their performances. (Photo by Russell Bailey)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale are\nexamining whether sports psychology skills and techniques can help student\npilots get in a good mindset and optimize their performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting this fall, a cross-disciplinary collaboration that involves the School of Aviation<\/a> and the School of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, both within the College of Health and Human Sciences, will aim to improve flight students\u2019 scores on rigorous practical examinations, or check rides. Working with four clinical psychology graduate students, eligible aviation students who volunteer for the approximate 16-week online program will learn to increase their psychological flexibility, motivation and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking at performance psychology that has been used\nin professional sports for many years, where simply they get athletes in the\nright head space for optimal performance,\u201d said Irene Miller, an assistant\nprofessor in aviation management, adding that utilizing performance psychology\nis new to the aviation field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal is to have 120 aviation flight students \u2014 60 each\nin the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters \u2014 with varying amounts of flight\nexperience participate. Students will participate in six, one-hour sessions via\nZoom. The research study proposal has been reviewed by the Federal Aviation\nAdministration, and officials there, along with the U.S. Naval Training\nCommand, are eager to see how the study turns out, Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Lee, an assistant professor in clinical psychology, is\nsupervising and implementing the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rigorous demands<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students can experience many stress factors in college and\nthat can be even more significant when coupled with passing FAA written exams\nand mastering flight skills needed to pass practical exams to obtain pilot\nlicenses and ratings. A check ride is a 3- to 4-hour practical exam involving\nan oral and flight evaluation, usually to earn an FAA rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller explained students at times might make a seemingly\nminor error during a check ride but then dwell on that rather than focusing on\nthe tasks at hand and anticipating the tasks ahead. The primary consequence of\ndwelling on a minor error is not passing the FAA practical exam (check ride).\nUltimately, if the student\u2019s performance continues to degrade, then they will\nrisk the chance of not completing the flight training program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply telling someone to \u201cnot be nervous\u201d doesn\u2019t work,\nsaid Miller, but giving them skills so they can cope and \u201cthrive very well in\nthose situations\u201d is the goal. Faculty also involved in the research with\nMiller and Lee are Mike Robertson, a professor in aviation flight, and Ken Bro,\nan assistant professor in aviation management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPilots have to take check rides throughout their careers.\nIt is a part of the job that never stops,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cOften this causes\nstress, especially in the student population. If they can learn the skills to\nenhance their performance now, it will only benefit them as they continue their\npiloting career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychological flexibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee explained that the sessions will be focused on skills and strengths and less on symptoms. \u201cWhat we are doing is teaching these acceptance-based\ncognitive behavioral skills,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are focusing on flight checks, but\nthey are broadly applicable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having psychological flexibility allows people to move away from a mind\u2019s natural tendency to look back at something that was off rather than focusing on the task at hand. Students will practice skills to help them achieve that, he said. \u201cBeing psychologically flexible in the moment is to be\npresent and aware,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graduate students who are involved in the project will benefit from gaining clinical hours and having direct contact with students under his supervision, Lee said. The students discussed the study\u2019s design and methodology over the summer. The goal is to have preliminary results by fall 2023, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee is also excited about collaborating with another area of campus. \u201cI think most disciplines are this way,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\noften feel kind of siloed and that we kind of just talk to ourselves and that\nwe are only helping ourselves in some ways. In psychology especially, we are\nalways trying to reach people who could benefit by this; what more can we do?\nThere is a real possibility here to be useful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Seeking to optimize performance: Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty Eric Lee, left, assistant professor in psychology, and Irene Miller, assistant professor in aviation management, are involved in research to examine whether sports psychology skills and techniques can help student pilots get in a good mindset and optimize their performances. (Photo by Russell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,98,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-education","category-aviation-education","category-illinois"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/unnamed-91.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23537,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23533\/revisions\/23537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}