Additive Sensory Noise Effects on Operator Performance in a Lunar Landing Simulation.

Adding noise to a system to improve a weak signal's detectability is known as stochastic resonance (SR). SR has been shown to improve sensory perception and cognitive performance in certain individuals, but it is unknown whether this performance improvement can translate to meaningful macrocognitive enhancements in performance for complex, operational tasks. We investigated human operator performance in a lunar landing simulation while applying auditory white noise and/or noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation.