Human Information Processing: Sensation, Perception and Cognition
What the exam tests
Human Information Processing tests how sensation becomes perception, how attention and memory limit performance, and how vestibular and visual illusions cause spatial disorientation. Expect applied questions on illusions and on cognitive limits in the cockpit.
Core rules
- Sensation is detection by receptors; perception is the brain's interpretation, shaped by expectation, experience and context. Top-down processing can make you see what you expect.
- Attention is limited; selective attention filters, divided attention costs capacity, and vigilance declines during long, monotonous monitoring.
- Working memory holds only a few chunks for seconds; chunking and checklists reduce load. Long-term memory is schema-based, so experts recognise patterns but can also miss novel cues.
- Visual system: cones give colour and detail in the fovea; rods give dim-light vision but no colour and adapt over 20-30 minutes. Use off-centre viewing at night.
- Vestibular system cannot distinguish gravity from acceleration. Common illusions: somatogravic (acceleration feels like pitch-up), somatogyral/leans, graveyard spiral, Coriolis, autokinesis, black-hole approach.
- Spatial disorientation is resolved by trusting instruments, not sensations.
Worked example
On a dark night takeoff, the pilot accelerates and feels the aircraft pitching up, so pushes forward. The otoliths are responding to linear acceleration, not pitch. The correct response is to cross-check the attitude indicator and maintain the flight director; the sensation is a somatogravic illusion.
Traps
- 'Trust your senses' in IMC.
- Confusing autokinesis (a stationary light appears to move) with a real traffic conflict.
- Staring at one instrument instead of scanning.
- Assuming colour vision is adequate for night peripheral detection.