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Flight simulator motion has been demonstrated to affect performance in the simulator, but recent transfer of training studies have failed to demonstrate an effect upon in-flight performance. However, these transfer studies examined the effects of motion in experimental designs that did not permit a dependency relationship to be established between the characteristics of the motion simulated and the training objectives or the performance measured. Another investigator has suggested that motion cues which occur in flight can be dichotomized as maneuver and disturbance cues, i.e., as resulting from pilot control action or from external forces. This paper examines each type cue and relates it analytically to training requirements. The need to establish such relationships in simulator design is emphasized. Future transfer studies should examine specific training objectives that can be expected to be effected by motion.

Twenty-four nonpilot, volunteer subjects were tested on three flight tasks while flying four basic aircraft attitude presentations (moving horizon, moving airplane, frequency-separated, and kinalog) in a light twin-engine aircraft simulator providing three types of motion cues (no motion, standard GAT-2 motion, and washout motion). The flight tasks involved conflicting visual and vestibular cues and included disturbed attitude tracking, command flight path tracking in both pursuit and compensatory modes, and a series of recovery trials from discrete unknown attitudes. To provide a basis for comparison, the present simulator study closely replicated the procedures used in the Roscoe and Williges (1975) flight experiment. The frequency-separated display yielded performances at least equivalent and in some cases superior to those obtained with the conventional moving horizon display. Either type of simulator motion resulted in better disturbed attitude tracking performance than no motion, and washout motion provided stereotypic control responses in recovery from unknown attitudes most closely corresponding to those obtained in flight. It was concluded that care must be used in generalizing simulator results to flight performance when no physical motion cues or inappropriate ones are present in the simulator.

A highway driving simulator with a computer-generated visual display, physical motion cues of roll, yaw, and lateral translation, and velocity-dependent sound/vibration cues was used to investigate the influence of these cues on driver performance. Forty-eight student subjects were randomly allocated to six experimental groups. Each group of eight subjects experienced a unique combination of the motion and audio cues. The control group received a full simulation condition while each of the remaining five groups performed with certain combinations of motion and sound deleted. Each driver generated nine minutes of continuous data from which five performance measures were derived. Results indicate that the performance measures of yaw, lateral, and velocity deviation are significantly affected by the deletion of cues. In support of the hypothesis that driver performance is augmented by the addition of motion cues, statistically significant negative correlations were obtained between the number of motion cues present and the measures of yaw and lateral deviation. With respect to motion and audio cues, recommendations are made regarding simulator design criteria.

This report presents the results of an experimental simulation study of the effects of vertical accelerations on the ability of pilots to track a simple, one dimensional random signal on the “Pilot Operated Dynamic Flight Simulator” of the Columbus Division of NAA. It was concluded that pilots could track significantly better with simple aircraft response motion cues. However, when gusts and turbulence were added to the cockpit motion, pilot performance was significantly degraded.