Exploring Skill Acquisition and Intrinsic Motivation in Head Mounted Virtual Reality Simulator Training

Abstract

Simulators have long been utilized in maritime training, from relatively low-fidelity simulators of the 1950s to the full-mission simulators currently in use. Technological development has steadily increased the effectiveness of training simulators, and the last ten years focus has shifted toward implementation of head mounted display virtual reality (HMD VR) systems in training. While a number of studies comparing different display types have been initiated, limited research has investigated the effectiveness of HMD VR simulator systems in training. The purpose of this study was to contribute to this research gap by investigating the effect of HMD VR on elements of skill acquisition and intrinsic motivation. An experimental study comparing task performance and subjective intrinsic motivation in HMD VR and desktop setup was conducted to validate the effectiveness of the system. The study consisted of two experimental groups, a HMD VR group (n=25) and a desktop group (n=25), both completing the same experimental tasks. Results indicated previous gaming experience to affect performance and intrinsic motivation to be higher for participants in the higher-level immersion HMD VR group, but contrary to hypothesis, results indicated task performance to be better in desktop than in HMD VR.