Conducting training in a new or unfamiliar environment requires a certain amount of time to acquire the necessary spatial orientation and familiarity to that environment's physical layout. This thesis explores the effects of exposing individuals to a PC-based virtual replication of a small-scale real world training environment to determine if such exposure has any effect on an individual's ability to acquire the necessary spatial orientation and familiarity of the real world environment. In this thesis individual spatial orientation and familiarity to the layout of the real world environment will be measured using a set of retrieval tasks conducted in the real environment and by development of a sketched map of that environment. Establishing a link between an individual's ability to gain an acceptable level of spatial orientation and familiarity with a real world environment by first exposing them to a PC-based virtual replication of that environment is vital to the future of video game development and virtual simulation technologies used for training in the military.

This study on terrorism training follows the logic that terrorism is a "wicked problem" and there are various strategies to cope with it. Systems thinking is one of the coping strategies to address "wicked problems." A system is a whole composed of complex organized elements (subsystems) interacting with each other and with their environment. The stability of a system depends on its components' alignment. Misaligning one of its components, will destabilize, or even disrupt the whole system. In this regard, the study defines terrorism and terrorist organizations in systems terms, explains their components and interrelations, and concludes that the most important component of a terrorist system is the training subsystem. Thus it is important to understand how the subsystem functions in order to disrupt the whole system. The study reviews the types of terrorist training, how the terrorists and their organizations learn (process), what the terrorists learn (content), where the terrorists learn (location) and concludes that the internet is the new safe haven for terrorist training. It also demonstrates the adaptive capability of terrorist system moving from land-based to internet-based training. Almost every terrorist organization on the US Sate Department's designated terrorist organizations list exists on the Net. One example is the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) terrorist network. Its website network is analyzed by content and network structure using social network analysis software UCINET. The goal is to develop strategies to eliminate the web presence of the terrorist training subsystem.

One of the largest application domains for Virtual Reality lies in simulating the Real World. Contemporary applications of virtual environments include training devices for surgery, component assembly and maintenance, all of which require a high fidelity reproduction of psychomotor skills. One extremely important research question in this field is: "How closely does our facsimile of a real task in a virtual environment reproduce that Task?" At present the field of Virtual Reality is answering this question in subjective terms by the concept of presence and in objective terms by measures of task performance or training effectiveness ratios.

"A Masters Project ... Animation and Interactive Media, Faculty of Art, Design and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne"--Title screen. Title from title screen. System requirement: CD-ROM drive, Realplayer, Beatnik, Koan audio.

This study evaluated the transfer of training and training efficiency of two virtual reality environments (head-mounted display and personal computer) for a complex manual assembly task. Transfer of training was measured by comparing the post-training performance of two virtual training groups, a real-world training group and a control group that received no training. All training groups were taught to assemble a Lego(TM) forklift model in their respective environment. After training, participants assembled a real-world model of the forklift as well as a novel model of a racecar, which required the same parts as the forklift assembled in a different configuration. Results from this study show that virtual environments can be effective training simulators for complex assembly tasks although they are less efficient than real-world training. The results also suggest that individual differences such as general intelligence, spatial aptitude, and computer user self-efficacy influence one's ability to learn in a virtual environment. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. / "May 2005."

The maneuver of ROV requires considerable pilot skill which is a product of physical and mental practice over a long period of time. However, with the limitations of ROV safety, the availability and high cost of deploying equipment, most of ROV pilots gain the necessary skill through on-the-job training. In this study, we developed a simulation system for ROV pilot training and mission planning. This system is implemented in C++ with the cross-platform OpenGL for 3D graphics. It equips with a scene editor allowing the user to build complex 3D geometric objects from simpler primitives. This editor allows the user to change settings of ambient light intensity, visibility, current speed, and seafloor topography for fulfilling specific training requirements. As well, the user can translate and rotate the entire 3D scene and look at it from different vantage point. Besides, this system provides the user with simple commands for mission planning. For realistically simulating the dynamic behavior of the ROV, the nonlinear hydrodynamic equations of motion of the ROV with six degrees of freedom are applied to describe its motion. Moreover, this system is built with the capability of collision detection for evaluating the collision response of ROV. During the training process, the data engine records all navigation data which can be retrieved and played after conducting a training course. The animation playback function exactly reproduces the scenario that occurs during the period of training. It presents the trainee with the opportunity to review the whole operation scenario. Besides, experiments were designed based on the Taguchi Method to study the effects of different factors on ROV pilot performance. The factors selected for evaluation include ROV trajectory display, underwater visibility, ROV positioning error, and current speed. We found that underwater visibility has the greatest influence on ROV pilot performance, next are ROV positioning error and ROV trajectory display, then the current speed. This result will be helpful in rating the level of difficulty of the training.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-205).

Thesis--School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., 1994-95. / Title from title screen (viewed Oct. 27, 2003). "March 1996." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy