Impact of instructional strategies on workload, stress, and flow in simulation-based training for behavior cue analysis

Abstract

The U.S. Army desires to improve Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) abilities by incorporating Unmanned Ground Systems (UGS) to aid in the identification of High Value Individuals (HVI) through the analysis of human behavior cues from safer distances. This requires analysts to employ perceptual skills indirectly via UGS video surveillance displays and will also require training platforms tailored to address the perceptual skill needs of these robot-aided ISR tasks. The U.S. Army identifies Simulation-Based Training (SBT) as a necessary training medium for UGS technologies. Instructional strategies that may increase the effectiveness of SBT for robot-aided ISR tasks include Highlighting and Massed Exposure. This study compared the impact of each strategy on trainee workload, stress, and flow during SBT for a behavior cue analysis task. Ultimately, the goal of this research effort is to provide instructional design recommendations that will improve SBT development to support effective training for emerging UGS capabilities.