A 3-year longitudinal study

Background: Expert knowledge may compensate for age-related declines in basic cognitive and sensory-motor abilities in some skill domains. We investigated the influence of age and aviation expertise (indexed by Federal Aviation Administration pilot ratings) on longitudinal flight simulator performance. Methods: Over a 3-year period, 118 general aviation pilots aged 40 to 69 years were tested annually, in which their flight performance was scored in terms of 1) executing air-traffic controller communications; 2) traffic avoidance; 3) scanning cockpit instruments; 4) executing an approach to landing; and 5) a flight summary score. Results: More expert pilots had better flight summary scores at baseline and showed less decline over time. Secondary analyses revealed that expertise effects were most evident in the accuracy of executing aviation communications, the measure on which performance declined most sharply over time. Regarding age, even though older pilots initially performed worse than younger pilots, over time older pilots showed less decline in flight summary scores than younger pilots. Secondary analyses revealed that the oldest pilots did well over time because their traffic avoidance performance improved more vs younger pilots. Conclusions: These longitudinal findings support previous cross-sectional studies in aviation as well as non-aviation domains, which demonstrated the advantageous effect of prior experience and specialized expertise on older adults’ skilled cognitive performances. NEUROLOGY 2007;68:648–654 As the workforce ages in an era of accelerating technological advances, it becomes imperative to understand how aging affects performance in the workplace. In aviation, for example, an aging workforce coincident with the introduction of jet aircraft appears to have played a role in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) decision for mandatory retirement of airline pilots at age 60.1 It has been argued that age-based retirement rules are discriminatory and should be replaced with more direct methods of risk assessment.2 Simulations of occupationally relevant or hazardous activities such as driving are desirable complements to medical and neuropsychological assessments because simulations permit individuals to draw upon prior knowledge and procedural memory relevant to a skill domain. Cross-sectional studies of expert performers, including medical technologists, typists, and musicians, have found that expert knowledge may compensate for age-related declines in basic cognitive and sensory-motor abilities in some skill domains.3-8 Thus, expertise may moderate (reduce) the impact of age on occupationally relevant performance. Flight simulator assessments provide objective, reliable performance measures that are sensitive to differences in age9 and level of aviation expertise,10 but all of the flight simulator and expertise research to date has been cross-sectional. Longitudinal studies are essential toward understanding the aging process and its interplay with putative protective factors such as expertise.11,12 Using data from the ongoing Stanford/VA longitudinal study of aviators aged 40 to 69 years at study entry, we investigated the influences of age and expertise on flight simulator performance over a 3-year period. Methods. Participants. Entry criteria. Participants were part of the ongoing longitudinal Stanford/VA Aviation Study approved by the Stanford University Institutional Review Board. Main inclusion criteria were age 40 to 69 years at study entry, current FAA medical certificate (Class III or higher), and current Additional material related to this article can be found on the Neurology Web site. Go to www.neurology.org and scroll down the Table of