Informing Cognitive Task Selection for Simulated Exploration Extravehicular Activity Navigation

Future human spaceflight missions will require exploration extravehicular activity (EVA) to achieve scientific objectives. Simulated environments of exploration EVAs are being created that incorporate workload sources that future crews may encounter. This work aims to assess the convergent validity of a modified Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation (PT/SO) test that incorporates EVA-relevant navigational skills to well-established, but less ecologically valid, cognitive workload tasks. We conducted two pilot studies where (1) an untimed PT/SO test was compared to an untimed 2-back task and (2) a timed PT/SO test was compared to a timed Stroop task. Cognitive tasks were compared on metrics of accuracy, response time, and perceived mental workload. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between tasks to assess convergent validity, and linear mixed effects models were used within tasks to examine the influence of task time. From these findings, we propose a task for integration into follow-on exploration EVA simulation environment studies.