According to recent research, incompetent people are often unaware of their incompetence. In several studies, Kruger and Dunning gave undergraduates tests of logical reasoning, English grammar, and ability to recognize whether or not specific jokes are funny. Therefore, not only were the lowest scorers apparently incompetent at a specific task, but they are also apparently unaware of their incompetence. In contrast, people who scored the highest on the tests were actually likely to slightly underestimate their performance relative to other participants scores.
Pilots have an enormous amount of information to keep track of in order to fly their planes safely.
This is especially true of military pilots in combat. Currently, even the best-designed aircraft cockpits require pilots to shift their attention to either a window or a dial to learn information about their speed and location. Dyre suspects that there is a better, more natural way for pilots to learn this information. Dyre hopes that by presenting pilots with virtual displays in their peripheral field of vision, they will be able to learn about their speed and location without having to shift their focus away from other important tasks. With a grant from the Air Force, he and his research team are on their way to testing his theory.