Abstract
While much has been made of the potential uses for virtual environment (VE) technologies as training aids, there are few guidelines and strategies to inform system development from the user’s perspective. Assumptions are that a human factors-based evaluation will ensure optimal performance, transferring training from virtual to real worlds; however, there are complex, yet unexplored, issues surrounding system optimization and employment. A comprehensive investigation into the foundations of training, traversing levels of performance analysis, from overt behavioral responses to the less explicit neuronal patterns, is proposed from which optimal training strategies can be inferred and system development guidelines deduced.