Efficacy of Transfer in Simulation-Based Training: Implications for Stress Exposure Training Jennifer M. Ross, James L. Szalma, & Peter A. Hancock Psychology Department And Institute of Simulation and Training University of Central Florida Orlando, EL Abstract Transfer of training fiom simulators to the real-world has recently come under investigation as the generalizability of task-specific training has come into question. New hypotheses recommend that, to ensure effective performance under stress in real-world environments, one should supplement skill-based training with stress exposure training. Stress exposure training has further benefits in that it may serve as a more generalizable form of training and transfer across tasks and stressors. The impact of improving performance and reducing perceived stress and workload is of vital importance to many military operations, especially in high technology and high workload situations such as the Landwarrier or Unmanned Aria1 Vehicles (UAVs), in which mistakes are costly in terms of economics as well as life. In this article the premise of and future implications of Stress Exposure Training are discussed. Simulation Training Indeed, such disasters as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the USS Vincennes have underscored the importance Simulation has been successfully employed in military and developing training interventions to offset the impact of commercial sectors to train individuals (e.g., pilots, stressors on complex cognitive tasks (Johnston & Cannon- soldiers, doctors) with the objective of increasing their B ~ 1996). ~ ~ ~ ~ , performance accuracy in real-world situations. The primary method of performance improvement in these Stress Exposure Training contexts is to provide simulator-based practice of situations and conditions similar to those expected to be encountered One avenue of increasing the generalizability of simulator- in a real-world Stress Exposure Training. However, the based training has been through empirical work which has extent to which simulator-based training transfers to real- been conducted on Stress Exposure Training (Klepac, world application has recently been questioned (Driskell, Hauge, Dowling, & McDonald, 1981; Saunders, 1993; Johnston, & Salas, 2001). New theories of simulator Saunders, Driskell, Johnston, Salas, 1996). Considerable training challenge traditional task-based simulation evidence has shown that stressors cause decrements in training, claiming that skill acquisition is highly task- attitudes and performance, which are related to outcomes specific and not readily transferable to different tasks and that are emotional, behavioral, or physiological in nature situations (Sims & Mayer, 2002). This limitation decreases (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1987). Stress Exposure the applicability of simulator training transferring to Training works by training individuals on factors that are performance in a real-world Stress Exposure Training, more generalizable than task skills, such as controlling which is highly complex, dynamic, and virtually perceived stress and workload by providing intervention impossible to anticipate all potential tasklaccident information on stressors, sensory information on scenarios that may occur. In a review by Ivancevich and physiological and emotional reactions to stress, and colleagues (1990). recommendations were made that procedural information on how stress effects task training programs should be designed to address performance. These three phases of stress exposure performance outcomes associated with specific stressors. training will be further discussed later in the paper.