Spatial awereness

[J.A.W.]

Most every bike rider knows that spatial awareness - ( an ability - likely inherited from our tree-dwelling forebears),
is a needful survival skill, (& makes you a better car driver too..)

[-Felix-]

Great Thread! Very interesting topic. Reminds me also of another thing racing drivers are great at, which is anticipation. Kind of comes in play also to this spatial awareness, when drivers opt for rooms that aren't there but are just there when they arrive. A professional racing driver once drove my car on the Nordschleife and when you normally drive in the traffic, of course there are no close battles, you leave room to each other. Not him, we approached a slower car in front of us and where I would have waited for a straight to overtake him, he stepped on it right in the middle of the corner and I thought "boy we are just going to hit him in the back" but once only 1m away from him our line went further out and we passed him on the outside at the corner exit, my front bumber missing his rear bumber by a couple of inch, while both going full open. I know my car over a year, he didn't at all, he drove just 4 km with it at that point it happened. I thought we'd hit him, he knew we wouldn't and we didn't. Impressed me quite much and it's both, he had a better spatial awareness of my car although never driven it and at that point he stepped on the gas in the apex, he knew where our car and the other car would be at the exit and that it would just be enough room. Tought me one thing: driving a car fast on a track and racing on a track are two different things.

[autogyro]

A lot more to it than even that Felix.
A race driver must also be able to conserve tyres and fuel if it is in a formula like F1.
Simply learning the maximum capability of the car in a short time and using it is just the beginning.
The driver must also be capable of driving using advice from the pits and learn how to nurse the car home if needed.

[captainmorgan]

The cerebellum, in the lower back part of your brain, is pretty much entirely dedicated towards this kind of physical coordination between your muscles/limbs, combined with sensory information about the outside world that is processed in other parts of the brain.

Actual control of your muscles is higher up along the sides of the top of your brain, in your prefrontal gyrus. Your hands, legs, fingers etc, all get controlled from this part of the brain. Since you have much finer control of your hands, a larger area of this brain region is dedicated to your hands and fingers than other parts of your brain. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q ... 1832836917

About a decade ago, people found out that tool-use gets mapped near to the hand portion of the brain, it kind of gets squeezed in there. So, being learning to be familiar with a tool makes the brain treat it like any other part of the body. I would guess that this would also apply to driving skill.

[-Felix-]

A lot more to it than even that Felix.
A race driver must also be able to conserve tyres and fuel if it is in a formula like F1.
Simply learning the maximum capability of the car in a short time and using it is just the beginning.
The driver must also be capable of driving using advice from the pits and learn how to nurse the car home if needed.

Yes you are right. It was just at that moment, I realised I will never be a racing driver. Bringing a car close to it's capabilities and driving quite fast on a given track, maybe I am better than average. But definitely lacking those other abilities you need not to only drive a car fast, but race it. The first chapters in Jenkinsons book cover that topic really well. I found myself quite often in his words.

[riff_raff]

I don't see "spatial awareness" as being that important for an F1 driver. They can easily race along a straight at very high speed within inches of another car.What is more critical is their ability to know exactly where the traction limits of their car is at any time. And their ability to quickly recover control when they exceed those limits.

[J.A.W.]

Well r-r, you need to know that 'spatial awareness' is a dynamic process,
& that includes the ability to judge the probable outcomes of stimulus inputs..

Training/experiential feedback can make this response feel reflexive.. ..pre-conscious.. to the adept..

[autogyro]

Well r-r, you need to know that 'spatial awareness' is a dynamic process,
& that includes the ability to judge the probable outcomes of stimulus inputs..

Training/experiential feedback can make this response feel reflexive.. ..pre-conscious.. to the adept..

I am very interested in how spatial awareness affects how well a combat aircraft operates as compared to an F1 car etc.
It would be a great help in a cross over project I am involved in.

[J.A.W.]

A-G, I'm guessing you mean fighter pilots.. ..the brylcreem/top-gun boys..

There is a fair bit of research going as far back as WW2 - where 'ace' pilots underwent effectiveness evaluations..

The hows & whys of both flying & gunnery, G-capability/deflection shooting..
& introduction of G-suits/gyro-sights..

[illario]

*Note, english is not my first language and in sign of respect of quality of this forum i try to do my best.

Kimi has left me speechless through 2013, Monaco last lap, entering Sainte Devote and passing a *Sauber from outside is also a very good example of spatial awareness but "tool" capabilities too.(couldn't find a good quality video)
I see 3 fields of 'knowledge' here. Your car(tires condition etc), space around(wall, bump etc) and the other drivers possible reactions.
Im thinking G-force or other 'inner feelings'* should play a role for brain so it can evaluate what forces are coming from where(imagine the time it takes to feel the back of the car sliding!), where is body moving and where to balance.
Inside car you can't move your 'tail' or feet, everything is done with hand movements.
Spacial awareness in F1 also resembles fights in trees, where different factors are calculated in form of 'knowledge', factors such as branch capabilities, your own physical(not car!) and your enemies possible movement(high/low morale should have a big effect).

[trinidefender]

Concerning fighter pilots and many pilots in general (almost all helicopter pilots do it) we have to go through what is known as unusual attitude training. This is where the instructor will tell you to close your eyes and put the aircraft or full motion simulator in various climbs, dives, turns, loops or what have you and then tell you to open your eyes and you you are expected to recover the aircraft to straight and level flight at a certain altitude, speed and heading. Oddly enough this has very little to do with spatial awareness. With no outside visual references you brain isn't very good at figuring out which way is up or down etc and is quite a weird feeling. You are taught/trained to ignore what your body is telling you and to look at your instruments (attitude indicator - this tells you what pitch and roll the aircraft is in, your vertical speed indicator, your airspeed indicator, compass/directional gyro and finally what power settings you are currently using). This doesn't directly pertain to F1 but gives a small insight into the world of disorientation and recovery from it.

[autogyro]

Concerning fighter pilots and many pilots in general (almost all helicopter pilots do it) we have to go through what is known as unusual attitude training. This is where the instructor will tell you to close your eyes and put the aircraft or full motion simulator in various climbs, dives, turns, loops or what have you and then tell you to open your eyes and you you are expected to recover the aircraft to straight and level flight at a certain altitude, speed and heading. Oddly enough this has very little to do with spatial awareness. With no outside visual references you brain isn't very good at figuring out which way is up or down etc and is quite a weird feeling. You are taught/trained to ignore what your body is telling you and to look at your instruments (attitude indicator - this tells you what pitch and roll the aircraft is in, your vertical speed indicator, your airspeed indicator, compass/directional gyro and finally what power settings you are currently using). This doesn't directly pertain to F1 but gives a small insight into the world of disorientation and recovery from it.

Interesting, I did similar training years ago.
This tends to negate the capability of the human senses when compared to other vehicle/aircraft on board sensors.
With driver less cars being allowed on the highways, it would point to the superiority of computer controlled systems over human.
What does the human brain/mind input to the control and operational efficiency of an F1 car or fighter aircraft?

[J.A.W.]

The brain allows for overlapping sensory inputs,
& under blind flying conditions trusting instrumentation has shown its value.

The tragic case of the French Airbus crash into the Atlantic where the pilot was wrongly battling
the computerised automatic control safety over-rides is a case in point.

However, the visual field, whereby correctly predicting likely manoeuvres & effectively countering them,
via expert control inputs - is what sorts the aces from the also rans..

"Natural" vs "learned" applied ability - is another matter..

[trinidefender]

The brain allows for overlapping sensory inputs,
& under blind flying conditions trusting instrumentation has shown its value.

The tragic case of the French Airbus crash into the Atlantic where the pilot was wrongly battling
the computerised automatic control safety over-rides is a case in point.

However, the visual field, whereby correctly predicting likely manoeuvres & effectively countering them,
via expert control inputs - is what sorts the aces from the also rans..

"Natural" vs "learned" applied ability - is another matter..

I would caution you to be careful about the French Airbus crash. The crash was not caused by disorientation but rather by lack of aircraft knowledge and/or insufficient training on that aircraft type. The airbus flight control computers are not supposed to allow the aircraft to stall in normal operation however in certain circumstances the computers can go into modes where the pilot has more direct control over what the aircraft is doing and has no stall protection built in. It was noted that the first officer kept a pitch up control input in his side stick control which the captain did not realise until it was to late.

The problem with flying purely according to spatial awareness and relying on what your sense are telling you is that the brain can be easily tricked by various optical illusions, odd and abrupt attitude changes. A real killer is the aircraft doing things gat the pilot thinks it cannot do and as such the brain ignores what your bodies senses are saying and tries to make sense of the situation, often wrongly. A good pilot is one who knows when to move between visual references and instrument references and make quick and correct decisions.

About blind flying....we have had to do 2 hour IFR flights right at the MSA (minimum safe altitude) with simulated failures involved and a failed autopilot for the whole flight (because our companies check airman likes to see us sweat) and a cloud base of 400 feet. The only time I am not relying purely on flying my instruments is just as I am taking off and after breaking the cloud base on landing.

Of course none of the above has much to do with F1 but is nice to know all the same. Considering mentioning optical illusions and how it can conflict with what your body is telling you (mainly inner ear); I wonder if drivers in F1 get affected by them in such high lateral G corners with abrupt speed changes and other manoeuvres.

[J.A.W.]

"I would caution you to be careful about the French Airbus crash."

Well T, perhaps that admonition would have been better directed at the recently late Air Asia Airbus crew?

Try having a shower in the dark, with the lights off- or eyes closed & no visual orientation cues..
Or swimming in good sized surf, where you get spun around underwater - as if in a washing machine.

These are fairly safe ways of experiencing the interrelationship of human 'spatial awareness' integration..