Learning in a Synthetic Environment: The Effect of Visual Display, Presence, and Simulator Sickness

Soldiers explored a synthetic representation of an Army heliport under three visual display conditions: (1) wide field of view (FOV) helmet mounted display, (2) narrow FOV helmet mounted display, and (3) stationary, wide screen display. Pretest and posttest measures of spatial knowledge were recorded. Measures of presence in the virtual environment were recorded. Measures of simulator sickness were administered upon exit from the virtual environment and 24 hours later. Overall, soldiers acquired a significant amount of spatial knowledge from the synthetic representation. When transferred to the actual Army heliport, soldiers were able to navigate around the location with near zero errors. There was no effect of visual display on any measures of spatial knowledge. Also, there was no effect of visual display on reported presence or simulator sickness. Simulator sickness was significantly reduced after 24 hours away from the virtual environment. Presence did not correlate with spatial knowledge. Simulator sickness correlated negatively with spatial knowledge. Presence and simulator sickness were negatively correlated.Army Research Inst for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Alexandria VA is the author of 'Learning in a Synthetic Environment: The Effect of Visual Display, Presence, and Simulator Sickness' with ISBN 9781423580393 and ISBN 1423580397.