2.1 Participants
According to G*power calculations(Faul et al., 2007), a total sample
size of at least 28 individuals was required to provide sufficient power
to detect a medium size effect (f = 0.25) with 80% power and a
significance level of α = 0.05. We recruited Forty-two healthy male
pilots (aged 21–25 years) with normal or corrected-to-normal vision
participated in this study. The target population of this study is
pilots, who are a special occupational group that often face
high-intensity work stress and challenges. Therefore, we mainly selected
male participants, as this profession is currently dominated by males.
Participants all received commercial aviation licenses from the Civil
Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and logged an average of more
than 230 hours of flight in simulators and in real aircraft. The
participants were randomly assigned to stress and control groups before
the experiment, and both groups were matched on flight hours, age, and
education, with 21 participants in each group. They were paid a fee
after the experiment. The Ethics Committee of the Civil Aviation Flight
University of China approved this study. Written informed consent was
given by each participant.