The United States Army continues to develop new and effective ways to use simulation for training. One example is the Non-Rated Crew Member Manned Module (NCM3), a simulator designed to train helicopter crewmembers in critical, high risk tasks such as crew coordination, flight, aerial gunnery, hoist and sling load related tasks. The goal of this study was to evaluate visual modalities' effect on performance in mixed reality aerial door gunnery. There is a strong belief in the United States Army that the greater the degree of immersion in a virtual simulation, the more effective that simulation is. However, little scientific research exists that supports this notion. In fact, the true goal of training simulation is to optimize the degree of transfer to the trainee - not to create the most immersive experience possible. As a result, the Army Program Manager frequently faces trade-off dilemmas during the simulation design phase, balancing user desires with cost and schedule constraints. One of those trade-off predicaments, and the unscientific manner in which it was resolved, served as the motivation for this research. A review of the literature was conducted in order to investigate the benefits of simulation for training. The taxonomy of reality, as well as the training efficacy of virtual and mixed reality simulation, were examined. Major concepts, applications and components of virtual and mixed reality simulation training were studied. Prior visual modality research was reviewed and discussed. Two discrete groups of subjects, expert (n = 20) and novice (n = 76), were employed in this study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two visual modality treatments (Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) flat panel screen or Head-Mounted Display (HMD)) and executed three aerial door gunnery training scenarios in the NCM3. Independent variables were visual modality, trial, immersive tendency and simulator sickness questionnaire scores. Dependent variables included performance, presence and simulator sickness change scores. The results of the study indicate no main effect of visual modality on performance for the expert population while a main effect of visual modality on performance was discovered for the novice population. Both visual treatment groups experienced the same degree of presence and simulator sickness. No relationship between an individual's immersive tendency and their performance and level of presence was found. Results of this study's primary objective are conflicting, by expertise group, and thus both support and challenge the commonly held notion that higher immersive simulation leads to better performance.

Video games are being studied today more than ever before. The engagement that they generate with the user, if harnessed, is thought to have applications across numerous other fields. Educators especially wish to implement elements of gaming into supplemental activities to help further interest students in the learning process. Many claim that this is because classroom’s today are in direct contradiction with the real home life of students. Student’s today were born into the fast paced world of the digital realm, frequently multi-tasking between watching television, playing games, doing homework, and socializing. As educators begin to create game like experiences to drive student engagement they will seek to create interactions that foster the psychological phenomena of flow, presence, and engagement. Each of these three processes helps play a key role in what makes video games the attention-grabbing medium that they are. When creating games it would be beneficial to know which type of game mechanics reinforce these phenomena the most. The goal of this study is to investigate, Super Meat Boy and Limbo, two very similar games with very different mechanical representations and see which game is more engaging in these three areas. Twentynine participants played one of the two games for forty-five minutes, completed three separate measurements, and were observed throughout the process. The results were analyzed and found one game to indeed be more engaging than the other.

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Mobile media are quickly becoming primary sources of communication in everyday life. With this progress, comes the ability to experience an array of different degrees and types of presence. Individuals can be both in the physical presence of others as well as present with others at a distance by experiencing telepresence. This study examined the role of mobile media in the context of romantic relationships. It looked at the relationship between the senses of intimacy and telepresence as they were experienced by individuals. The theories of apparatgeist and perpetual contact were employed to describe the relationship between the nature of the technology, the associated behavior of its use, and the experience of various forms of telepresence. Interviews with fourteen participants provided the data analyzed in this qualitative study. These interviews were transcribed and used for a thematic analysis of presence and intimacy experience. The results describe a wide variance and nuanced reality of how individuals sense the presence of each other through mobile technology. These results contribute to an understanding of how individuals understand and talk about their experience of telepresence and also what it means to them in their personal lives. / Mass Media and Communication

This study examines the theory of social presence and its relevancy to distance learning. Short, William, and Christie (1976) originally designed social presence to evaluate the difference between types of dyads (one-to-one interactions) and the quality of the communication media used for those interactions (Rafaeli, 1988; Rice, 1984; Walther, 1992). However, the theory of social presence was not design to explain mediated communication between multiple individuals. Although studies have investigated the effects of social presence in computer-mediated conferencing, little field research exist on the importance of social presence with multiple individuals communicating together within a Web-based instructional program. Moreover, it is evident from the body of literature that a universal meaning of social presence is lacking. For this reason, social presence in this study referred to the degree to which adult learners perceived that they had established some form of rapport with members of an online community. This includes interactions with other learners and support personnel (i.e., faculty, staff, technical support, graders, etc.). Social presence has emerged as an important social factor in the field of distance learning (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, 1999). Recent field studies emphasize the importance of examining social and psychological factors that affect student satisfaction, impact learning, and influences the way people communicate in distance learning environments (Blocher, 1997; Gunawardena, 1995, Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; Hackman, 1990, 1996; Hiltz, 1997; Rourke, 1999; Walther, 1992). Researchers in the fields of education and human interpersonal communication have identified "interactivity" (i.e., interaction), "intimacy," and "immediacy" as attributes that enhance social presence (Christophel, 1990; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997; McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996; Mehrabian, 1989; Moore, 1989b; Short et al., 1976). Although social presence has been characterized as an important construct in distance learning (McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996), little existing field research describes the value adult learners place on it, and whether it affects their satisfaction within a mediated learning environment. This descriptive study examined the adult distance learners' perceived value of social presence (based on interactions, intimacy, and immediacy), in addition to whether it existed within an asynchronous Web-based instructional program. / Ph. D.