The Effect of an Unconscious Auditory Stimulus on Pilot Performance under Varying Instrument Flying Conditions

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Factors and Systems

Year

2003

Author dc:creator

• Christakou, Christina Eleni

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dennis A. Vincenzi
• Dahai Liu
• Charlie Bass

• auditory
• unconscious
• pilot
• performance
• instrument
• flying
• Aviation
• Cognition and Perception

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/31

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.erau.edu:db-theses-1040