COMMUNICATION

The first cockpit tool that tends to suffer from stress is communication. When several tasks have to be performed simultaneously, especially when these tasks require a lot of conscious attention, people tend to reduce communication, because communication uses up mental resources and time. Communication is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information by various means, including speech.

Therefore, in a high workload environment, when a pilot's mind is already very busy on another task such as flying the aircraft or coordinating an abnormal situation, their communications will usually become lesser, as to not take up as much time, nor processing power in their already nearly saturated minds.

This is one of the largest reasons to have SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) which dictate what communications should be made, as it 'takes a load off' the pilot's mind, and allows the correct communication to be made without unnecessary stress or workload.