title: The effects of gender, flow and video game experience on combat identification training.
abstract: The present study examined the effects of gender, video game experience (VGE), and flow state on multiple indices of combat identification (CID) performance. Individuals were trained on six combat vehicles in a simulation, presented through either a stereoscopic or non-stereoscopic display. Participants then reported flow state, VGE and were tested on their ability to discriminate friend vs. foe and identify both pictures and videos of the trained vehicles. The effect of stereoscopy was not significant. There was an effect of gender across three dependent measures. For the two picture-based measures, the effect of gender was mediated by VGE. Additionally, the effect of gender was moderated by flow state on the identification measures. Overall, the study suggests that gender differences may be overcome by VGE and by achieving flow state. Selection based on these individual differences may be useful for future military simulation. Practitioner Summary: This work investigates the effect of gender, VGE and flow state on CID performance. For three measures of performance, there was a main effect of gender. Gender was mediated by previous VGE on two measures, and gender was moderated by flow state on two measures.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Wichita State University , Wichita , KS , USA.
authors.forename: John Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Plummer
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , San José State University , San José , CA , USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2698-7654
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.affiliation: c Department of Human Factors , Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University , Daytona Beach , FL , USA.
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Keebler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior; D013334:Students; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014495:Universities; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D018910:Video Games; D014857:Warfare; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Combat identification; learning and memory; training technologies; video game experience