The studies presented in this dissertation were funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, The Hague, project no. 575-22-006). They were conducted at Maastricht University and at the Open University of The Netherlands in Heerlen. The conference presentations emerging from this project were financed by grants provided by NWO and the Limburg University Fund (SWOL). ecaus...

This study investigated the performance of piloting skills under two virtual training environments: immersive versus nonimmersive. Specifically in this paper, climbing and descending tasks while maintaining constant airspeed is reported. Results of experiments show performance differences with subjects under the nonimmersive virtual environment (NIVE) showing a consistent decrease in altitude e...

This article was acceptedjor publication April J2, J996 B asic counting skills are prerequisites to a variety of academic and vocational tasks as well as community survival skills (Baroody & Snyder, 1983; Spradlin, Corter, Stevens, & Friedman, 1974). Couming is often the only math skill required in jobs where persons with menral retardation seek employment (Chandler, 1978; Easterday, 1987). If ...

Studies show that soldiers’ mine detection capabilities with the PSS-12 hand-held metal detector are substandard and that their probabilities of detecting (PD) low-metal mines are dangerously low. Highly experienced PSS-12 operators, however, achieve PDs over 0.90 on highand low-metal anti-tank (AT) and anti-personnel (AP) mines. Significantly, experts’ detection techniques differ from conventi...

We present a feasibility study on using video visualization to aid snooker skill training. By involving the coaches and players in the loop of intelligent reasoning, our approach addresses the difficulties of automated semantic reasoning, while benefiting from mature video processing techniques. This work was conducted in conjunction with a snooker club and a sports scientist. In particular, we...

Skill in improvising enables emergency management personnel to make creative decisions under time constraint, even when risks are high. It therefore complements skill in plan-following, which is particularly appropriate when the current emergency is similar to a past one. This paper develops recommendations on how to use Information Technology (IT) in the design of training programmes for impro...

A major element in expert sports performance, particularly racket-and-ball games, is excellent anticipatory skill. A prestudy combined the temporal and spatial occlusion paradigms to ascertain which key stimuli badminton players use for anticipating the direction of overhead shots. The main study then evaluated a program for training anticipatory skills; 200 video clips were employed to orient ...

Practicing simple visual tasks induces substantial improvement. We investigated whether increased efficiency is accompanied by automaticity and immunity to across-task interference. We found that although practice speeds orientation feature detection, it does not abolish susceptibility to interference from introduction of concurrent central-letter identification, which takes priority. Yet follo...

Multimodal, immersive, virtual reality (VR) techniques open new perspectives for perceptual-motor skill trainers. They also introduce new risks and dangers. This paper describes the benefits and pitfalls of multimodal training and the cognitive building blocks of a multimodal, VR training simulators.