The effect of visual display on performance in mixed reality simulation

Abstract

The United States Army continues to develop new and effective ways to use simulation for training. One example is the Non-Rated Crew Member Manned Module (NCM3), a simulator designed to train helicopter crewmembers in critical, high-risk tasks such as aerial door gunnery. The goal of this study was to evaluate visual display’s effect on performance in mixed reality aerial door gunnery. Two discrete groups of subjects, expert and novice, were employed in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two visual display treatments and executed three training scenarios in the NCM3. Independent variables were visual display, immersive tendency and Simulator Sickness Questionnaire scores. Dependent variables included performance, presence and simulator sickness change scores. The results of the study indicated no main effect of visual display on performance for the expert population while a main effect of visual display on performance was discovered for the novice population. Both visual treatment groups experienced the same degree of presence and simulator sickness. No relationship between an individual’s immersive tendency and their performance nor level of presence was found. Results of this study both support and challenge the commonly held notion that higher immersive simulation leads to better performance.

Keywords:

• Simulation
• training
• mixed reality
• immersion
• presence
• performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.