Hi everyone,

My supervisors have asked me to seek advice from external experts in the field of human factors, augmented reality, psychology etc. to see if the wording of my hypotheses makes sense prior to commencing data collection in the coming weeks.

In my experiment, I will be training participants to execute drone flights (using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Open Test Lane) while viewing flight procedures on a nearby screen (Condition 1), on a Microsoft Hololens 2 (Condition 2), and having them read aloud by a non-flying co-pilot while wearing an EPSON Moverio BT-300 headset (Condition 3).

On Training/Testing Day 1, participants will perform a series of training flights to familiarise themselves with the drone controls, and will also acquaint themselves with operating a drone under each of the three conditions mentioned above. Immediately following the completion of training, they will execute three different drone flights (1 flight per condition) and their baseline performance recorded.

This is a repeated-measures, within-subject experiment design, so participants will execute the same flight procedures (in a randomised order to facilitate counterbalancing and eliminate any learning/practice effect) under the exact same conditions as the test flights on Testing Day 1.

We will be measuring participants total elapsed flight time, as well as the number of errors they make on each flight. Thus, we expect that participants will execute the drone flights significantly faster and with significantly fewer errors while using the Moverio compared to when they use Hololens and the digital screen.

In addition to this, participants will return 4 days later to perform the same flights, and one final time 6 months later which will allow us to see how participant performance compares over time across all three conditions.

Therefore, my core hypotheses are as follows:

1. We hypothesise that using a heads-up, head-worn AR display (i.e. EPSON Moverio) to view drone flight procedures would result in better long-term retention of a newly acquired motor skill than using a head-worn AR display, or an LCD screen.

2. We hypothesise that using a heads-up, head-worn AR display (i.e. EPSON Moverio) to view drone flight procedures following a training-performance interval of approximately 6 months would result in participants making significantly fewer errors in the execution of a newly acquired motor skill than using a head-worn AR display, or an LCD screen.

I am attaching a series of images visualising and hopefully clarifying all of what I have said above. However, if you have any comments or queries of your own please make them know here in your responses and I will be happy to share more information.

Thank you all in advance for taking the time to help me out, it's very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Cian