Date of Award
Summer 2026
Access Type
Dissertation - Open Access
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Aviation
Department
College of Aviation
Committee Chair
Frank Ayers
Committee Chair Email
ayersf@erau.edu
First Committee Member
Juan Merkt
First Committee Member Email
merktj@erau.edu
Second Committee Member
Maarten Uijt de Haag
Second Committee Member Email
maarten.uijtdehaag@tu-berlin.de
Third Committee Member
Scott Winters
Third Committee Member Email
WINTE25E@erau.edu
College Dean
Alan J. Stolzer
Abstract
Pilot training is time-consuming and costly, and not all phases require full-flight simulators or actual aircraft. Virtual reality (VR) offers a potential means to reduce cost and duration while supporting practical cockpit procedure training. While prior research in the VR domain suggests that providing haptic feedback can support training of muscular control and increase perceived immersion, it remains unclear whether haptic feedback improves spatial cognition in an unfamiliar VR environment. This study examined whether haptic feedback and cockpit complexity affected response time and position error under limited-visibility, time-constrained conditions in a VR cockpit environment (i.e., a quasi-blindfold cockpit check).
Grounded in cognitive map theory, the study conceptualized training in the virtual cockpit as supporting the formation of an internal spatial representation of control locations that could later be retrieved during performance under reduced visual-reference conditions. Within this framework, haptic feedback was treated as an additional sensory cue that might support spatial encoding and subsequent recall of the cockpit layout. The experiment employed a 2 × 2 between-subjects post-test-only design in which haptic feedback (absent versus present) and cockpit complexity (low versus high control dispersal) served as independent variables, and response time and position error as dependent variables. A total of 132 adult participants, recruited through convenience sampling from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach campus, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (n = 33 per condition), completed a standardized VR training phase, and then performed a time-limited blindfold cockpit check in the same virtual layout.
Data were analyzed using a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), supported by assumption checks, 3,000-sample bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap estimates, and an exploratory covariate-adjusted analysis examining the influence of age, pilot training, simulator experience, VR experience, and self-rated VR expertise. The multivariate main effect of complexity on response time and position error was not significant (Pillai’s Trace = .026, F(2, 127) = 1.72, p = .183, partial η² = .026). The main effect of haptic feedback was negligible (Pillai’s Trace = .001, F(2, 127) = 0.04, p = .962, partial η² = .001), and the independent variable interaction was also non-significant (Pillai’s Trace = .024, F(2, 127) = 1.53, p = .220, partial η² = .024). Univariate tests showed similarly small effects, and bootstrap confidence intervals for parameter estimates included zero. Covariate adjustment did not change the pattern of null experimental results.
The findings indicated that, in this specific VR quasi-blindfold cockpit-check task performed under time-limited conditions, adding glove-based haptic feedback and increasing control dispersal were not associated with statistically significant improvements in immediate performance. However, participants reported greater immersion in the haptic conditions. The results, therefore, suggest that, in this context, haptic feedback did not provide sufficiently distinctive spatial information to measurably improve the formation or retrieval of an internal spatial representation beyond that afforded by the visual information available during training. More broadly, the findings indicate that the performance benefits of haptic feedback in VR aviation training may be task- and implementation-dependent rather than universal. As such, the study offers a methodological approach for systematically evaluating these effects in cockpit procedure research.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Jaedicke, Christian K., "Enhancing Virtual Reality Cockpit Procedure Training with Haptic Feedback" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. 1016.
https://commons.erau.edu/edt/1016
