Quasi-Transfer as a Predictor of Transfer from Simulator to Airplane

Abstract

Simulators have emerged as important components of flight-training programs. Nevertheless, the development of design principles that can maximize training transfer and cost-benefit trade-offs are not well established. The most significant challenge to research that would bear on simulator design principles is the difficulty and expense of flight transfer experiments. This difficulty and expense can be reduced by the use of an in-simulator transfer design, designated here as a quasi-transfer study, in which transfer is to a high-fidelity configuration of a simulator. Of primary concern for such studies is whether the implied assumption of correspondence between quasi-transfer and transfer effects is well founded. In this article, we review evidence that bears on this issue. The evidence is not entirely supportive but does indicate some correspondence between quasi-transfer and transfer.