Human error remains a significant contributing factor with respect to accidents in civil air transportation. It is therefore crucial to establish avenues by which performance on the flightdeck can be enhanced under conditions of distress. The purpose of this study was to examine whether an unconscious auditory stimulus (UAS) could enhance pilot performance under varying instrument flight (IFR) conditions on the aircraft flightdeck. Forty IFR student pilots underwent two eight-minute simulated flights, whereupon they were presented with different IFR weather conditions. During the trial, the experimental group listened to a UAS, whereas the control group listened to white noise (WN). Performance was measured based on the deviation from the localizer (LOC), the glide slope (GS), and the air speed (AS). It was hypothesized that the UAS would assist in enhancing pilot performance under varying IFR weather conditions, and that overall good weather conditions would degrade performance less than poor weather conditions. The results of this experiment did not support the hypotheses. Possible explanations are presented in the discussion section.
","abstract_html":"<p>Human error remains a significant contributing factor with respect to accidents in civil air transportation. It is therefore crucial to establish avenues by which performance on the flightdeck can be enhanced under conditions of distress. The purpose of this study was to examine whether an unconscious auditory stimulus (UAS) could enhance pilot performance under varying instrument flight (IFR) conditions on the aircraft flightdeck. Forty IFR student pilots underwent two eight-minute simulated flights, whereupon they were presented with different IFR weather conditions. During the trial, the experimental group listened to a UAS, whereas the control group listened to white noise (WN). Performance was measured based on the deviation from the localizer (LOC), the glide slope (GS), and the air speed (AS). It was hypothesized that the UAS would assist in enhancing pilot performance under varying IFR weather conditions, and that overall good weather conditions would degrade performance less than poor weather conditions. The results of this experiment did not support the hypotheses. Possible explanations are presented in the discussion section.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Christakou, Christina Eleni"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems","degree_level":"Thesis - Open Access","degree_discipline":"Human Factors and Systems","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dennis A. Vincenzi","Dahai Liu","Charlie Bass"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2003,"date_issued":"2003-07-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2003-07-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:29Z","subjects":["auditory","unconscious","pilot","performance","instrument","flying","Aviation","Cognition and Perception"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/31","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dennis A. Vincenzi","Dahai Liu","Charlie Bass"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Christakou, Christina Eleni"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Human Factors and Systems"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis - Open Access"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["auditory","unconscious","pilot","performance","instrument","flying","Aviation","Cognition and Perception"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/31"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Human error remains a significant contributing factor with respect to accidents in civil air transportation. It is therefore crucial to establish avenues by which performance on the flightdeck can be enhanced under conditions of distress. The purpose of this study was to examine whether an unconscious auditory stimulus (UAS) could enhance pilot performance under varying instrument flight (IFR) conditions on the aircraft flightdeck. Forty IFR student pilots underwent two eight-minute simulated flights, whereupon they were presented with different IFR weather conditions. During the trial, the experimental group listened to a UAS, whereas the control group listened to white noise (WN). Performance was measured based on the deviation from the localizer (LOC), the glide slope (GS), and the air speed (AS). It was hypothesized that the UAS would assist in enhancing pilot performance under varying IFR weather conditions, and that overall good weather conditions would degrade performance less than poor weather conditions. The results of this experiment did not support the hypotheses. Possible explanations are presented in the discussion section.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Effect of an Unconscious Auditory Stimulus on Pilot Performance under Varying Instrument Flying Conditions"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dennis A. Vincenzi","Dahai Liu","Charlie Bass"],"dc:creator":["Christakou, Christina Eleni"],"dc:description.abstract":["Human error remains a significant contributing factor with respect to accidents in civil air transportation. It is therefore crucial to establish avenues by which performance on the flightdeck can be enhanced under conditions of distress. The purpose of this study was to examine whether an unconscious auditory stimulus (UAS) could enhance pilot performance under varying instrument flight (IFR) conditions on the aircraft flightdeck. Forty IFR student pilots underwent two eight-minute simulated flights, whereupon they were presented with different IFR weather conditions. During the trial, the experimental group listened to a UAS, whereas the control group listened to white noise (WN). Performance was measured based on the deviation from the localizer (LOC), the glide slope (GS), and the air speed (AS). It was hypothesized that the UAS would assist in enhancing pilot performance under varying IFR weather conditions, and that overall good weather conditions would degrade performance less than poor weather conditions. The results of this experiment did not support the hypotheses. Possible explanations are presented in the discussion section.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/31"],"dc:subject":["auditory","unconscious","pilot","performance","instrument","flying","Aviation","Cognition and Perception"],"dc:title":["The Effect of an Unconscious Auditory Stimulus on Pilot Performance under Varying Instrument Flying Conditions"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Human Factors and Systems"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis - Open Access"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:29Z"}