Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
Was Fitts and Posners' work to do with aviation, or something else? We have a variety of skill sets that call for mastery or proficiency, particularly perishable skills, that also have currency requirements.
As an example, landing an aircraft on a naval ship at night.
Unless you know how to do it, have done it before (both are elements of confidence), and have some recency of experience, and at least minimum proficiency, you are more likely to cock it up.
I've seen lack of confidence lead people to turn in their wings and deselect from flying status. So yeah, confidence is necessary.
Aerobatics, particularly at low level/display, is similarly a non trivial task to get right.
I won't comment further on aerobatics as Lomcevak has the floor and is a far better source.
Well, this is exactly why I asked the question really - I'm interested in seeing any aviation research which has tested the role of confidence in skill based tasks