Effects of Tactical Navigation Display Modality on Navigation Performance, Situation Awareness, and Mental Workload

A tactical navigation task was performed in a virtual environment by 14 young male U.S. Army Soldiers using seven navigation display modalities to convey waypoint information. Among the seven experimental conditions were visual, aural, and tactile displays. Navigation performance, situation awareness, mental workload, and modality preference were measured for each participant in the within subjects design. Results indicate augmented visual displays reduced time to complete navigation, maintained situation awareness, and drastically reduced mental workload over the other display modalities.