COMPUTER SIMULATIONS IN FAULT DIAGNOSIS TRAINING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF LEARNING TRANSFER FROM SIMULATION TO LIVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

An experiment compared the instructional effectiveness of two types of computer simulations and instructional television in the context of aircraft powerplant troubleshooting. The simulations ranged from abstract computer displays with no specific context to simulations of specific aircraft powerplants. The television training used locally produced troubleshooting programs supplemented with reading assignments and on-line testing.;It was found that past success in academic/technical courses was the best predictor of troubleshooting performance. Almost as useful as a predictor was the performance on the context-free troubleshooting simulations. Further, the results of a post-experiment questionnaire indicated that the trainees felt that the context-free simulations were a very good predictor of live system fault diagnosis abilities. Somewhat surprisingly, performance on the context-specific simulation was not a particularly good preditor of live system performance.;The research led to recommendations on curriculum design for troubleshooting instruction, design of computer simulations for fault diagnosis training, and suggestions for related research.;Thirty-six advanced aviation maintenance students from the University of Illinois Institute of Aviation solved real engine problems subsequent to the experimental laboratory training. Fine-grained analyses and live system performance measures were developed to determine the effects of training method on troubleshooting competence. The findings indicated that training with instructional television, in those cases where it provided specific fault diagnosis techniques for the particular faults to be encountered, resulted in the best performance rating. However, there was some evidence that the computer simulations enabled trainees to develop general skills that were applicable to successful problem solution in unfamiliar simulated contexts.