Confinement has no effect on visual space perception: The results of the Mars-500 experiment

Abstract

People confined to a closed space live in a visual environment that differs from a natural open-space environment in several respects. The view is restricted to no more than a few meters, and nearby objects cannot be perceived relative to the position of a horizon. Thus, one might expect to find changes in visual space perception as a consequence of the prolonged experience of confinement. The subjects in our experimental study were participants of the Mars-500 project and spent nearly a year and a half isolated from the outside world during a simulated mission to Mars. The participants were presented with a battery of computer-based psychophysical tests examining their performance on various 3-D perception tasks, and we monitored changes in their perceptual performance throughout their confinement. Contrary to our expectations, no serious effect of the confinement on the crewmembers' 3-D perception was observed in any experiment. Several interpretations of these findings are discussed, including the possibilities that (1) the crewmembers' 3-D perception really did not change significantly, (2) changes in 3-D perception were manifested in the precision rather than the accuracy of perceptual judgments, and/or (3) the experimental conditions and the group sample were problematic.

Visual space perception at different levels of depth description

“…Even more significant was the difference in perceptual performance between our small-scale and large-scale stimuli, the former resulting in better average performance (see also Baird & Biersdorf, 1967;Loomis et al, 1992;Loomis et al, 2002;Norman et al, 1996;Šikl & Šimeček, 2011, 2014. However, this finding is not surprising, considering the pairs of interobject distances in terms of their retinal sizes at either scale.…”

Where am I? Who am I? The Relation Between Spatial Cognition, Social Cognition and Individual Differences in the Built Environment

“…Longer-term confinement might have even broader psychological implications. Similar studies of changes in visual cognition due to voluntary confinement of 500 days for a similar simulated space mission were difficult to study due to increased apathy and fatigue (Lukavský, 2014 ; Sikl and Simecek, 2014 ). The social isolation that accompanies incarceration might give rise to even greater difficulties.…”

Space Travels and Empathy: A New Area of Educational Intervention

“…In another vein, there is no evidence of changing on visual space perception. Contrary to the previous ideas of the researchers, a long period of confinement (e.g., Mars-500 Project) does not cause significant changes in three-dimensional perception [24]. In another vein, as was stated in defining the concept of "safe days" [20], traveling to Mars requires to go out from the magnetic field of the Earth and make a long-duration trip in which crew will be expose to radiation [20].…”