Heterogeneity of personality and cognitive ability: Effects on flight team performance

We investigated the impact of heterogeneity of personality of team members and cognitive ability on flight team performance. Participants were 112 undergraduate students from a science university in China, who were randomly allocated to 56 two-person teams and completed a 3D orbital control task model that simulated common flight operation tasks. During the task, participants’ personality and basic cognitive ability were measured. Partial correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between heterogeneity and team performance. Results showed that heterogeneity in introversion and extroversion was significantly and positively correlated with team performance, as was heterogeneity in liveliness and social boldness. Conversely, heterogeneity in the ability to adapt to circumstances, number and spot addition ability, and comprehensive basic cognitive ability was significantly and negatively correlated with team performance. These findings have implications for optimizing the selection and collocation of aircrew.