The use of a perceptual speed test in civilian pilot selection

Perceptual speed is an important attribute for success as a pilot and has been assessed in many pilot selection batteries. The Tabular Speed Test (TST), a paper-and-pencil test of perceptual speed, was administered to 227 ab initio pilots and 152 licensed pilots who applied for employment at a large European airline. The airline had a multi-stage selection process including a computerized battery assessing quantitative and spatial abilities, short-term memory, psychomotor performance, multi-tasking, and personality. The number of correct responses (NC) had significant positive correlations for both ab initio and licensed pilots with measures of quantitative and spatial abilities, visual memory, multi-tasking, and psychomotor performance, but not with personality. The number of incorrect responses (NW) was correlated with Emotional Instability and Openness for licensed pilots but not with measures of cognitive ability

From invention to innovation: conversion ability in product development

The ability to convert inputs into outputs is a critical determinant of success in many fields of endeavor. In this research, the authors study the ability of firms to convert ideas into products, that is, their conversion ability. Specifically, they address the question, Why are some firms better at conversion than others? In contrast to much of the existing literature, the authors propose that a strong focus on speed and on generating many ideas may actually hurt firms by lowering their conversion ability. The authors test their arguments on data between 1960 and 2001 from a cross-national sample of pharmaceutical firms. They find that firms vary widely in their ability to convert promising drug ideas into launched drugs. Firms with the highest conversion ability are those that (1) focus on a moderate number of ideas, in areas of importance, and in areas in which they have expertise and (2) deliberate for a moderate length of time on promising ideas

Socio-inspired ICT: Towards a socially grounded society-ICT symbiosis

Modern ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has developed a vision where the “computer” is no longer associated with the concept of a single device or a network of devices, but rather the entirety of situated services originating in a digital world, which are perceived through the physical world. It is observed that services with explicit user input and output are becoming to be replaced by a computing landscape sensing the physical world via a huge variety of sensors, and controlling it via a plethora of actuators. The nature and appearance of computing devices is changing to be hidden in the fabric of everyday life, invisibly networked, and omnipresent, with applications greatly being based on the notions of context and knowledge. Interaction with such globe spanning, modern ICT systems will presumably be more implicit, at the periphery of human attention, rather than explicit, i.e. at the focus of human attention.Socio-inspired ICT assumes that future, globe scale ICT systems should be viewed as social systems. Such a view challenges research to identify and formalize the principles of interaction and adaptation in social systems, so as to be able to ground future ICT systems on those principles. This position paper therefore is concerned with the intersection of social behaviour and modern ICT, creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of pervasive, globe-spanning, omnipresent and participative ICTValues and TechnologyTechnology, Policy and Managemen