A Study of Field Independence and United States Military Air Traffic Controllers

Abstract

Research was conducted using United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Navy (USN) Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs). The Embedded Figures Test (EFT) was used to assess the existence of the underlying ability of field independence. This study investigated the hypothesis that active duty military ATCSs, as a group, tend to be more field independent than a comparable group of military personnel who were not controllers. This research effort showed that the underlying ability of field independence was possessed by the military ATCSs in the samples used.