“It’s not rocket science” and “It’s not brain surgery”—“It’s a walk in the park”: prospective comparative study

Objective To compare cognitive testing scores in neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers to help settle the age old argument of which phrase—“It’s not brain surgery” or “It’s not rocket science”—is most deserved. Design International prospective comparative study. Setting United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, and Canada. Participants 748 people (600 aerospace engineers and 148 neurosurgeons). After data cleaning, 401 complete datasets were included in the final analysis (329 aerospace engineers and 72 neurosurgeons). Main outcome measures Validated online test (Cognitron’s Great British Intelligence Test) measuring distinct aspects of cognition, spanning planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities. Results The neurosurgeons showed significantly higher scores than the aerospace engineers in semantic problem solving (difference 0.33, 95% confidence interval 0.13 to 0.52). Aerospace engineers showed significantly higher scores in mental manipulation and attention (−0.29, −0.48 to −0.09). No difference was found between groups in domain scores for memory (−0.18, −0.40 to 0.03), spatial problem solving (−0.19, −0.39 to 0.01), problem solving speed (0.03, −0.20 to 0.25), and memory recall speed (0.12, −0.10 to 0.35). When each group’s scores for the six domains were compared with those in the general population, only two differences were significant: the neurosurgeons’ problem solving speed was quicker (mean z score 0.24, 95% confidence interval 0.07 to 0.41) and their memory recall speed was slower (−0.19, −0.34 to −0.04). Conclusions In situations that do not require rapid problem solving, it might be more correct to use the phrase “It’s not brain surgery.” It is possible that both neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers are unnecessarily placed on a pedestal and that “It’s a walk in the park” or another phrase unrelated to careers might be more appropriate. Other specialties might deserve to be on that pedestal, and future work should aim to determine the most deserving profession.

Expert assessment of the important professional competencies of aerospace engineers

This article is dedicated to examination of the important professional competencies of aerospace engineers and specificity of their professional activity. The study represents an expert assessment of the activity and important professional competencies of aerospace engineers. The research program consisted of several stages. The first stage includes the formation of the relevant expert group and assessment of the characteristics of activity and important professional competencies based on the methodology of expert assessment of I. L. Solomin. The second stage implies the expert ranking of the important psychological characteristics in the activity of aerospace, and determination of psychological factors that affect the solution of professional tasks. Based on the acquired results, the author reveals the socioeconomic, industrial-technical, and psychological characteristics of the activity of aerospace engineers. The most important professional competencies of aerospace engineers include: attention span, ability to predict, psychic stability, memory, imagination, and distress tolerance. The effective solution of professional tasks by aerospace engineers requires psychological resilience to external influences, ability to maintain attention control, etc. The acquired data can be valuable in assessment of the important professional competencies of young specialists, as well as carrying out a set of measures aimed at developing attention span, ability to predict, and psychic stability.