The Advanced Cognitive Engineering (ACE) Lab at 杏吧原创 University specializes in research regarding aviation safety. The ACE Lab uses online, virtual reality, and full-scale flight simulation to investigate foundational principles of cognition and human-machine integration. The ACE Lab is seeking licensed/permitted pilots to participate in an upcoming study that will be of interest to the aviation community. There are now two ways to participate!

Option 1: In-Person

Those who live within driving distance to 杏吧原创 University have the option to attend in person at the ACE Lab and participate in the laboratory virtual reality flight simulation experiment and complete the online CANFLY assessment at the ACE Lab

Option 2: Remote

Those who cannot attend in person have the opportunity to complete just the online CANFLY portion of the study from the comfort of their home or office.

Link to the online survey for remote participants only can be accessed via the link below:

https://acelab.limequery.com/448967?lang=en

To Find Out More:

Interested pilots should contact the ACE Lab at acelabresearch@gmail.com

Below you will find information that you can share or post on your website or in an e-newsletter if you have flight school/club permission.

CANFLY: Validation of a Short Version of a Cognitive Screening Tool for General Aviation听

Study Purpose & Benefits: This study represents the next phase of our validation of a shortened version of the CANFLY, a cognitive health screening tool for pilots. The CANFLY was developed at the Advanced Cognitive Engineering (ACE) Lab at 杏吧原创 University. The goal of this study is to examine whether cognitive factors, such as situation awareness, collected in virtual flight environments are predictive of critical incidents.

Who Can Participate: Licensed/Permitted pilots may participate. Participants should have normal (or corrected to normal) vision and hearing.

Study Activities: For those who can attend in person: You are invited to participate in a virtual reality (VR) flight simulation study (~1 hour at the ACE Lab) AND an the CANFLY online cognitive health assessment for pilots (~45 minutes).

For those who are not able to attend in-person (as you are not in the Ottawa area): You are invited to complete just the CANFLY online cognitive health assessment for pilots from the comfort of your own home/office (~45 minutes).

Study Risks: For those participating in-person at the ACE Lab, 杏吧原创 University, there is a minor risk of simulator sickness, and if you have a history of simulator sickness or motion sickness you should not participate. Should the rare event of simulator sickness occur this is quickly remediated by stopping the simulation, briefly closing your eyes, and drinking some water.

Compensation: Your time will not be compensated, however you will be provided with free parking and refreshments should you attend the in-person session at 杏吧原创 University.

Location: The flight simulation study will take place at 杏吧原创 University at the Advanced Cognitive Engineering- Virtual Reality Laboratory, which is on the first floor of the 听 (parking in Lot #1 behind HCI and accessed from Library Road). For those who are not local to 杏吧原创 University, the CANFLY online cognitive health assessment for pilots will be completed from the comfort of your own home/office via a link provided to you.

How to Sign Up: For those who could attend in person at 杏吧原创 University in Ottawa, please email us at acelabresearch@gmail.com to book a time with one of our researchers.听 For those who can complete the online portion only (not local to Ottawa) please email us at acelabresearch@gmail.com to receive the link to the latest version of the CANFLY online screening tool.

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Study Approval: The ethics protocol for this project was reviewed by the 杏吧原创 University Research Ethics Board, which provided clearance to carry out the research. (Clearance # 119725)

Lead Researcher: Dr. Kathleen Van Benthem, Institute of Cognitive Science, 杏吧原创 University

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Chris Herdman, Department of Psychology, 杏吧原创 University

This study is self-funded and has no affiliation with any aviation regulatory body.

Alexia Ziccardi is second year student at the听Institute of Cognitive Science (ICS) working on her thesis in the ACE laboratory. She is using linguistics theory from an applied perspective to inform advancements in communication for pilots. Alexia鈥檚 CLUE Internship is with the National Research Council of Canada.

Melanie Turabian is a second year student with the Human Computer-Interaction program at 杏吧原创 University. Melanie’s research focuses on the neural correlates of aging as it relates to the field of general aviation. Her CLUE internship is with the Cognos Analytics design team at IBM Studios.

This online study represents the next phase of our validation of the . The main goal of the CANFLY research agenda is to promote flying for as long as safely possible. The CANFLY has shown excellent promise as a tool for identifying cognitive factors associated with risk during flight.听 For the CANFLY study, participants will answer short questions about situation awareness after watching four short interactive video clips of flight scenarios. Validation on a large scale with pilots across Canada is an important aspect of this phase of the CANFLY research.听 Here is a link to our online 听 听The study URL is https://acelab.limequery.com/952586?lang=en

Later this year we hope to launch a second online study entitled:听 鈥淰isual Illusions in Virtual Reality Flight Simulation鈥�. The Illusions study will explore the presence and impact of flight-related visual illusions in 3D virtual reality (VR) environments. This study is innovative, as it is seeking licensed pilots who use their own 3D VR systems like the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. During the study, participants will complete several guided flight scenarios. Your interaction with the researcher will be through virtual meeting means!听 The results of this study will provide us with insight into the validity of training and testing pilots for flight illusions using VR systems (which are economical and offer high ecological validity).

For both studies, pilots of all ages and levels of experience are encouraged to participate.听 Rather than having to attend our physical laboratory, we are modifying our research methods so that data can be collected from pilots in the comfort of their own homes. As always, the data will be completely anonymized, as we do not ask for person identifiers and IP addresses are not trackable through our platform.

For further inquiries or to indicate interest in participating in one or both of the upcoming studies you can contact the researchers at听 CessnaStudy@gmail.com 听

We thank you for your interest and hope to hear from you soon!

The ACE Lab is featured on the front page of the Road to VR website for it’s role in the Crytek VR First program.