D.D. Schmorrow et al. (Eds.): Augmented Cognition, HCII 2009, LNAI 5638, pp. 650–657, 2009. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 Perceptually-Informed Virtual Environment (PerceiVE) Design Tool Anna Skinner 1 , Jack Vice 1 , Corinna Lathan 1 , Cali Fidopiastis 2 , Chris Berka 3 , and Marc Sebrechts 4 1 AnthroTronix, Inc. 8737 Colesville Rd., L203 Silver Spring, MD 20910 2 Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida 3100 Technology Parkway, Orlando, FL 32826 3 Advanced Brain Monitoring, Inc. 2237 Faraday Ave., Ste 100 Carlsbad, CA 92008 4 Catholic University of America, Department of Psychology, 620 Michigan Ave, NE Washington, DC 20064 {askinner,jvice,clathan}@atinc.com, cfidiopia@ist.ucf.edu, chris@b-alert.com, sebrechts@cua.edu Abstract. Virtual environments (VE's) are becoming more and more prevalent as training tools for both military and civilian applications. The common as- sumption is that the more realistic the VE, the better the transfer of training to real world tasks. However, some aspects of task content and fidelity may result in stronger transfer of training than even the most high fidelity simulations. This research effort seeks to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a Perceptu- ally-informed Virtual Environment (PerceiVE) Design Tool, capable of dy- namically detecting changes in operator behavior and physiology throughout a VE experience and comparing those changes to operator behavior and physiol- ogy in real-world tasks. This approach could potentially determine which aspects of VE fidelity will have the highest impact on transfer of training. A preliminary study was conducted in which psychophysiological and perform- ance data were compared for a visual search tasks with low and high fidelity conditions. While no significant performance effects were found across condi- tions, event-related potential (ERP) data revealed significant differences be- tween the low and high fidelity stimulus conditions. These results suggest that psychophysiological measures may provide a more sensitive and objective measure for determining VE fidelity requirements. Keywords: Psychophysiological Measures, Virtual Environments, Fidelity, Transfer of Training, Simulation Design. 1 Introduction Virtual environments (VE’s) and simulations are being employed for training applica- tions in a wide variety of disciplines, both military and civilian. Technological ad- vances are enhancing the ability of developers to create VE’s with visual, auditory, haptic, and even olfactory realism. Such VE’s allow the military to train skills that are too costly, too dangerous, or are otherwise impossible to practice. While a significant