Effects of Display Magnification, Proprioceptive Cues, Control Dynamics and Trajectory Characteristics on Compensatory Tracking Performance

An experiment was performed on the NOTS-UCLA heavy inertia tracking simulator to assess effects of display magnification, proprioceptive cues, displacement aiding, trajectory characteristics and trajectory direction on tracking performance. Particular attention was paid to interactions among these variables. The results showed that: (1) 5x magnification significantly decreased tracking error compared to tracking without magnification; (2) proprioceptive cues related to both azimuth and elevation significantly improved performance; (3) velocity plus displacement-aiding control dynamics (time constant = 0.1 sec) produced significantly lower error scores than unaided velocity control dynamics (time constant = 0.0 sec); (4) since no crossover tendencies were found, the effects of the varables appear to be independent.