Which of the following is a characteristic of acute fatigue?

Which of the following is a characteristic of acute fatigue?

• A. Loss of accuracy and control
• B. Increased vigilance
• C. Faster reaction times
• D. Heightened awareness of errors

Answer: (A)

Acute fatigue impairs psychomotor performance and sustained attention, so tasks that require precise control and accurate perception become less reliable. When fatigued, a pilot’s ability to maintain stable attitude, altitude, and airspeed degrades, and control inputs can become imprecise, leading to errors that accumulate. This is why loss of accuracy and control is the hallmark symptom of acute fatigue in flight. The other descriptions describe states you’d expect with higher arousal or faster processing, which isn’t typical of acute fatigue: vigilance is usually reduced, reaction times are slower, and awareness of errors isn’t heightened.

Acute fatigue impairs psychomotor performance and sustained attention, so tasks that require precise control and accurate perception become less reliable. When fatigued, a pilot’s ability to maintain stable attitude, altitude, and airspeed degrades, and control inputs can become imprecise, leading to errors that accumulate. This is why loss of accuracy and control is the hallmark symptom of acute fatigue in flight.

The other descriptions describe states you’d expect with higher arousal or faster processing, which isn’t typical of acute fatigue: vigilance is usually reduced, reaction times are slower, and awareness of errors isn’t heightened.