Effect of Motion Feedback on Skill Acquisition: Training Performance using an Excavator Simulator

Abstract

Excavator simulators provide the primary advantage to construction industry workers of allowing safe and cost-effective training to occur, as compared to using physical equipment. Whether training benefits from equipping the simulator with a platform that simulates motion is a subject of interest, but it has been addressed previously mainly within flight and driving simulator research. Because there are unique aspects of the motion feedback in excavator simulators, we studied its inclusion in the present experiment. Novice participants performed Block 1 of a session operating an excavator simulator without the motion platform being activated. Then, half the participants performed Blocks 2 and 3 with motion activated and half without, after which both groups were tested without the motion platform in Block 4. Substantial improvements in productivity and time to complete the task across the four blocks were evident for both groups, with no significant difference between the groups in Blocks 1 and 4 (where both groups had no motion) or Blocks 2 and 3 (in which one group had motion and the other did not). Thus, this study found no evidence that the motion platform had a benefit or cost to improvement of performance in the excavator simulator.