Age dependent differences in the usage of a desktop VR system for air force mission planning and preparation

Abstract

This paper presents results on age dependent differences in the usage of a desktop VR system for mission planning and mission preparation in the German air force. The study investigated two tasks: one mission preparation task that demands more fluid cognitive resources like short term memory and pattern recognition; and one mission planning task in which experience was more important to complete the task. In both tasks the usage of a desktop VR system was compared to the usage of traditional media like paper maps and aerial images. In both tasks no significant interaction of age with the used media was found. However, in the mission planning task there was a weak trend that a group of senior pilots used the VR system more intensely than a group of younger pilots. In the mission preparation task pilots had to memorize and recognize objects within a target area. Response latency in identifying memorized objects of the senior pilots was significantly higher than for the two groups of younger pilots. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction of the factor age with the query condition within the tested scenes. The response latency of senior pilots was significantly higher when a false target had been shown in the test condition, rather than the correct target. In contrast the response latency of young pilots was equal for both query conditions. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.