Workload Analysis of Virtual World Simulation for Military Training

This research examined the training effectiveness of utilizing a virtual world simulation within an operationally relevant task domain and environment. Virtual world simulation-based training is becoming more common for military training due to recent simulation technological advancements. However, there remains a paucity of research examining this class of simulation's training effectiveness. In this paper, we examined the effect that virtual world simulation had on soldiers' workload, in comparison to live simulation's effect. Soldiers, participating as members of their assigned rifle squads, were randomly assigned to one of two training treatments (virtual world or live simulation) and performed four collective tasks. The independent variable was training condition and the dependent variable was workload, as measured by the NASA-TLX survey. Workload analysis revealed that training treatment had a significant main effect on the degree of workload perceived by Soldiers, in five of the six NASA-TLX sub-scales. This indicated that virtual world simulation stimulated greater perceived workload than the control treatment, live simulation. These results may challenge the notion that virtual world simulation cannot approximate the perceived workload of live simulation.