The effects of wearing pilots' oxygen masks on cognitive performance.

We analysed cognitive performance of professional pilots in two visual and one acoustical cognitive task while wearing two different kinds of oxygen masks for aircraft. The study was conducted in a simulator environment with a sample of N = 18 French pilots. The air composition was held constant. Co...

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Publicado en:Ergonomics Vol. 69; no. 7; pp. 1224 - 1235
Autores principales: Albers, Frank, Maier, Julia Maria, Schudlik, Kevin, Dupuy, Jean-Baptiste
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Jul2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul2026
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/00140139.2025.2511871
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        atl: The effects of wearing pilots' oxygen masks on cognitive performance.
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        au:
          Albers, Frank
          Maier, Julia Maria
          Schudlik, Kevin
          Dupuy, Jean-Baptiste
        affil: Department of Aerospace Psychology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Hamburg, Germany
      sug:
        subj:
          Aviation
          Pilots
          Simulations
          Oxygen Masks
          Cognition Evaluation
          Reaction Time Evaluation
          Human
          France
          Funding Source
          Male
          Female
          Adult
          Experimental Studies
          Descriptive Statistics
          Data Analysis Software
          Two-Way Analysis of Variance
          Repeated Measures
          Attention
          Visual Perception
          Auditory Perception
          Executive Function
          Ergonomics
          Processing Speed
          Workload
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Acoustics
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: We analysed cognitive performance of professional pilots in two visual and one acoustical cognitive task while wearing two different kinds of oxygen masks for aircraft. The study was conducted in a simulator environment with a sample of N = 18 French pilots. The air composition was held constant. Compared to baseline performance, there were no performance detriments in the visual tasks when accuracy was analysed. However, wearing the masks slowed down performance speed, although marginally. Also, the detriments were much smaller than the subjective feeling of inhibition as identified in an earlier study. In the acoustical task, a decrease in performance in accuracy and speed could only be observed in multiple task and therefore high workload situations. The underlying mechanisms that might cause the diverse detriments on different stages of cognitive processing are discussed as well as the practical implications, especially for enhancing compliance to professional mask wearing. Practitioner summary: In a simulation experiment, the effects of oxygen mask wearing on cognitive performance were shown to be marginal, although pilots might state feelings of subjective impairment. The results can help to foster mask wearing in pilots.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        pictorial
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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