title: Physical fidelity versus cognitive fidelity training in procedural skills acquisition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study examined whether training simulators for the acquisition of procedural skills should emphasize physical fidelity or cognitive fidelity of the task.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Simulation-based training for acquiring and practicing procedural skills is becoming widely established. Generally speaking, these simulators offer technological sophistication but disregard theory-based design, leaving unanswered the question of what task features should be represented in the simulators.The authors compared real-world training and two alternative virtual trainers, one emphasizing physical fidelity and the other cognitive fidelity of the task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were randomly assigned to one of four training groups in a LEGO assembly task: virtual-physical fidelity, cognitive fidelity, real world, and control. A posttraining test to assess the development of procedural skills was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both the virtual-physical fidelity and cognitive fidelity training methods produced better performance time than no training at all, as did the real-world training. The cognitive fidelity training was inferior in terms of test time compared to the real-world training, whereas the virtual-physical fidelity training was not. In contrast, only the real-world and the cognitive fidelity groups, and not the virtual-physical fidelity group, required significantly less time than the control group for error correction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The two training methods have complementary advantages.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Combining physical fidelity and cognitive training methods can enhance procedural skills acquisition when real-world training is not practicable.
authors: Technion--Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
authors: Ilanit
authors: I
authors: Hochmitz
authors: Nirit
authors: N
authors: Yuviler-Gavish
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008961:Models, Structural; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult