Exploration of cognitive strategies used on egocentric perspective-taking : an eye-tracking study on 2 different experimental settings : controlled laboratory conditions and simulated-microgravity conditions

Abstract

In recent years, eye-tracking is widely used in neuroergonomics and human factors research to explore visual screening and cognitive strategies during complex visuospatial tasks. More especially, aircraft, aerial vehicles, and space navigation require reliable spatial abilities that rely on a frame of reference, i.e. a perspective an operator chooses to describe a location in space or to perform an action. This can be done by using an allocentric or object-centered reference frame, when the object itself or its features orients an operator in space, according to an egocentric frame of reference that exploits the operator’s’ own perspective, and generally involves a body-axis rotation, or according to a third person that requires an operator to adopt another persons’ perspective. Reference frames and thus orientations in space, either real or mental, result from multisensory integration of visual, proprioceptive and vestibular information.