Trainees are selected between the ages of 20 to 25 after a strict medical
examination, part of which is conducted in a room subject to controlled air
pressure. Intelligence and psychological tests are also given. Many applicants
are eliminated in the preliminary examinations, only the superior candidates
being chosen. At the Shibata training center, it is reported that two steel
globular cages about 5 feet in diameter, with a seat inside and an opening
at eye-level in front of the seat, are used in training parachutists to
overcome giddiness and in rejecting those who prove unsatisfactory. A trainee
is strapped in the seat, and the cage then rolled about. Immediately upon
stopping, the candidate must read satisfactorily certain letters and figures
which are held opposite the eye-level opening in the cage.