Lycosaurus
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Meme Curator
After reading how difficult and stressful (and costly) the cogscreen test is reported to be, I wonder what percent of pilots with valid medicals would pass this test if it was a requirement for everyone.
Are we holding a small segment of the pilot population (deferred/denied initial medical) to a much higher standard? Not sure I would pass the test first time around.
I'm just curious as to how others feel about this ... (Dr. Bruce and other docs are welcome to chime in as well).
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Here is a summary of the test (copied from another thread):
The Cogscreen site gives a breakdown of the various sections: http://www.cogscreen.com/Overview.aspx
Backward Digit Span (BDS): The computer will flash a series of digits (I think it starts out with 3), and when it is done, you key in the series, but in reverse. So it will flash '5', then '7', then '4', then prompt you to enter in the series in reverse. It then gradually increases the length of the series (I think it went up to 6-7 digits).
Math: This was pretty straightforward and was your basic slew of simple word problems, multiple choice answers.
Visual Sequence Comparison (VSC): This test provided 5-6 letter strings that you had to discern between. Think of it as trying to pick out N563E8 from NS63F8 and other very similar looking strings (made even more similar looking thanks to that utterly ancient old DOS font).
Symbol Digit Coding (SDC): This is just a computer version of a standard test, which is best illustrated by a picture rather than me trying to describe it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projec...nt_id=phd003850&image_name=phd003850.1-g1.jpg
For the Cogscreen-AE test, I think there are only 6 symbol pairs, but the test is the same regardless. Protip: Even if you are really quick in checking the onscreen chart while keying in your responses, make sure to memorize perhaps 3 of the symbol/digit pairs. After the test, it will quiz you on how many digit/symbol pairs you recall. Sneakily, it will do this _again_ a few minutes later after you've done a completely different test!
Matching to Sample (MTS): I forget the specifics of how this was implemented in Cogscreen, but here's the wikipedia page on this type of test - note the accompanying graphic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match-to-sample_task
Basically you're shown a pattern made on a checkerboard, then afterwards you need to pick that pattern out of several very similar looking patterns.
Manikin (MAN): You're shown a little graphic of a dude holding a semaphore flag in one hand, and you need to enter in as quickly as possible if the flag is in his left or right hand. The little guy may be facing towards you or away from you, and he'll even get rotated upside down. I think flying RC planes helped a lot with this test, as you don't have time to think through "okay, if the flag was in my right hand, and I was facing that way and upside down...."
Divided Attention (DAT): Several of the tests wind up being repeated but with the addition of an additional little graphic that you have to keep an eye on. There's a little bar that will move left and right, and you need to keep it centered. Honestly, it reminded me of tapping the rudder on a taildragger! If the bar starts moving left on its own, it will continue moving left, so the way that I did these divided attention tests was to just get the bar centered and then alternately tap left-right-left-right to keep it centered and focus on the main task. Later tests had an additional attention dividing task as well - a marker would randomly creep its way up a gauge, and once it got past a certain line, you needed to hit a key.
Auditory Sequence Comparison (ASC): Computer will go "beep barp bloop bloop". (I think it did the same pattern one more time as well). Then, the computer will go "beep barp bloop barp" and ask if it's the same tone series it just played.
Pathfinder (PF): "Visual sequencing and scanning task that requires respondents to sequence numbers, letters, and an alternating set of numbers and letters." I don't remember much about this one, but I seem to recall that it had a bunch of squares with letters around the border, and the task was to tap on them in alphabetic order. So imagine Scrabble tiles of A-M scattered around, and you have to tap A-B-C-D-E... in order as quick as possible. Numbers are also added in, and the final Pathfinder test is tapping out the series A-1-B-2-C-3-D-4-E-5...
Shifting Attention (SAT): This was just Cogscreen's version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Rather than me trying to describe this test, this page has a description and sample test that you can run in your browser: https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library/wcst.html
Dual Task (DTT): This is the one I mentioned previously - the side task of keeping a rudder centered, hitting a key if a needle goes above a line on a gauge, all while doing the main task, which was to respond with the previous digit shown in a series. That's not a great description, so let me give an example... The computer shows '2', then '1'. Then it prompts you for "what was the previous digit in the series? You respond with '2', the computer then displays '3', then asks again for the previous digit in the series, so you respond with '1'. The computer then shows '2', you respond with '3', etc... Basically you just have to keep responding in that fashion. For some reason this core task by itself gave me fits (especially if there are repeating digits - computer says '2', I respond with '2', and then lose my place). Oddly enough, it was when the additional side tasks of keeping the rudder centered and keeping an eye on the creeping vertical gauge were added that I fell into a solid rhythm and absolutely nailed this test better than without the side distractions...
Are we holding a small segment of the pilot population (deferred/denied initial medical) to a much higher standard? Not sure I would pass the test first time around.
I'm just curious as to how others feel about this ... (Dr. Bruce and other docs are welcome to chime in as well).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a summary of the test (copied from another thread):
The Cogscreen site gives a breakdown of the various sections: http://www.cogscreen.com/Overview.aspx
Backward Digit Span (BDS): The computer will flash a series of digits (I think it starts out with 3), and when it is done, you key in the series, but in reverse. So it will flash '5', then '7', then '4', then prompt you to enter in the series in reverse. It then gradually increases the length of the series (I think it went up to 6-7 digits).
Math: This was pretty straightforward and was your basic slew of simple word problems, multiple choice answers.
Visual Sequence Comparison (VSC): This test provided 5-6 letter strings that you had to discern between. Think of it as trying to pick out N563E8 from NS63F8 and other very similar looking strings (made even more similar looking thanks to that utterly ancient old DOS font).
Symbol Digit Coding (SDC): This is just a computer version of a standard test, which is best illustrated by a picture rather than me trying to describe it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projec...nt_id=phd003850&image_name=phd003850.1-g1.jpg
For the Cogscreen-AE test, I think there are only 6 symbol pairs, but the test is the same regardless. Protip: Even if you are really quick in checking the onscreen chart while keying in your responses, make sure to memorize perhaps 3 of the symbol/digit pairs. After the test, it will quiz you on how many digit/symbol pairs you recall. Sneakily, it will do this _again_ a few minutes later after you've done a completely different test!
Matching to Sample (MTS): I forget the specifics of how this was implemented in Cogscreen, but here's the wikipedia page on this type of test - note the accompanying graphic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match-to-sample_task
Basically you're shown a pattern made on a checkerboard, then afterwards you need to pick that pattern out of several very similar looking patterns.
Manikin (MAN): You're shown a little graphic of a dude holding a semaphore flag in one hand, and you need to enter in as quickly as possible if the flag is in his left or right hand. The little guy may be facing towards you or away from you, and he'll even get rotated upside down. I think flying RC planes helped a lot with this test, as you don't have time to think through "okay, if the flag was in my right hand, and I was facing that way and upside down...."
Divided Attention (DAT): Several of the tests wind up being repeated but with the addition of an additional little graphic that you have to keep an eye on. There's a little bar that will move left and right, and you need to keep it centered. Honestly, it reminded me of tapping the rudder on a taildragger! If the bar starts moving left on its own, it will continue moving left, so the way that I did these divided attention tests was to just get the bar centered and then alternately tap left-right-left-right to keep it centered and focus on the main task. Later tests had an additional attention dividing task as well - a marker would randomly creep its way up a gauge, and once it got past a certain line, you needed to hit a key.
Auditory Sequence Comparison (ASC): Computer will go "beep barp bloop bloop". (I think it did the same pattern one more time as well). Then, the computer will go "beep barp bloop barp" and ask if it's the same tone series it just played.
Pathfinder (PF): "Visual sequencing and scanning task that requires respondents to sequence numbers, letters, and an alternating set of numbers and letters." I don't remember much about this one, but I seem to recall that it had a bunch of squares with letters around the border, and the task was to tap on them in alphabetic order. So imagine Scrabble tiles of A-M scattered around, and you have to tap A-B-C-D-E... in order as quick as possible. Numbers are also added in, and the final Pathfinder test is tapping out the series A-1-B-2-C-3-D-4-E-5...
Shifting Attention (SAT): This was just Cogscreen's version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task. Rather than me trying to describe this test, this page has a description and sample test that you can run in your browser: https://www.psytoolkit.org/experiment-library/wcst.html
Dual Task (DTT): This is the one I mentioned previously - the side task of keeping a rudder centered, hitting a key if a needle goes above a line on a gauge, all while doing the main task, which was to respond with the previous digit shown in a series. That's not a great description, so let me give an example... The computer shows '2', then '1'. Then it prompts you for "what was the previous digit in the series? You respond with '2', the computer then displays '3', then asks again for the previous digit in the series, so you respond with '1'. The computer then shows '2', you respond with '3', etc... Basically you just have to keep responding in that fashion. For some reason this core task by itself gave me fits (especially if there are repeating digits - computer says '2', I respond with '2', and then lose my place). Oddly enough, it was when the additional side tasks of keeping the rudder centered and keeping an eye on the creeping vertical gauge were added that I fell into a solid rhythm and absolutely nailed this test better than without the side distractions...
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