Surgical trainees show decreased performance during laparoscopic surgery when the laparoscope (camera) is not aligned with their line of sight towards the operating area. In this study we investigate the influence of visuospatial ability on laparoscopic simulator performance under such non-zero optical angles. Novices were invited to participate in a laparoscopic training session. After completing a visuospatial ability assessment, they performed a simplified laparoscopic task on an in-house developed laparoscopic simulator under eight different optical angles ranging between 0° and 315° in steps of 45°. Data-analysis showed decreased performance under all non-zero optical angles for task duration (mean difference between 1506 and 5049 ms, standard error between 499 and 507, p < .05) and for accuracy under optical angles greater than ±45° (mean difference between 1.48 and 2.11, standard error 0.32, p < .01). Performance-zones were identified for various optical angle ranges and differed for task duration and accuracy. Participants of high visuospatial ability performed significantly better under non-zero angles for accuracy compared to participants of low visuospatial ability (mean difference 0.95, standard error 0.34, p < .01), except for the 180° optical angle (no difference).

当腹腔镜（摄像机）与手术区域的视线不对齐时，外科受训者在腹腔镜手术期间表现出性能下降。在本研究中，我们研究了在这种非零光学角度下视觉空间能力对腹腔镜模拟器性能的影响。新手受邀参加腹腔镜培训课程。完成视觉空间能力评估后，他们在内部开发的腹腔镜模拟器上执行了简化的腹腔镜任务，在 0° 到 315° 之间的八个不同光学角度下以 45° 为步长。数据分析显示，在任务持续时间内，所有非零光学角度下的性能都会下降（1506 和 5049 毫秒之间的平均差异，499 和 507 之间的标准误差，p  < .05）以及光学角度大于 ±45° 下的准确性（平均1.48 和 2.11 之间的差异，标准误差 0.32，p  < .01）。针对不同的光学角度范围确定了性能区域，并且根据任务持续时间和准确性而不同。与低视觉空间能力的参与者相比，高视觉空间能力的参与者在非零角度下的准确度表现明显更好（平均差 0.95，标准误差 0.34，p  < .01），180° 光学角度除外（无差异）。