Transfer of Training Effectiveness of a Personal Computer Aviation Training Device

Abstract

The training effectiveness of personal computer aviation training devices (PCATDs) has received only limited testing. In the experiment reported here, a commercially available PCATD was evaluated for its transfer effectiveness for teaching of instrument flight skills. Students from the beginning and advanced instrument courses at the University of Illinois were trained to criterion in the PCATD on a wide range of tasks and were then retrained to criterion in the airplane on the same tasks. Other students were trained to criterion on the same tasks only in the airplane. Comparisons of trials to criterion in the airplane for the 2 groups, their times to complete each flight lesson in the airplane, and their course completion times were used to assess the training effectiveness of the PCATD. Transfer savings were generally positive and substantial when new tasks were introduced but low when tasks already learned in previous lessons were reviewed. A comparison of course completion times showed savings of 3.9 hr in the airplane for the PCATD group compared to the airplane-control group.