Video Game as a Covariate for Carrier Landing Research

Abstract

In behavioral research, individual differences account for the bulk of the variance in the data and thereby limit the power of an experiment to demonstrate the presence of actual differences. Covariates offer a convenient and inexpensive means of increasing power. Air Combat Maneuvering, a game from the Atari home video series, was studied for its relationship to glideslope tracking scores in a carrier-landing flight simulator. After correction for attenuation due to unreliability of the measures, scores on video-games accounted for 48 to 86% of the variance. Air Combat Manuevering appears to be potentially useful as a covariate in carrier-landing training research.