ABSTRACT
The design of flight training simulators is often based on the concept that “transfer of training is highest when similarity of the training and transfer situations is the highest…this is the governing principle for most simulators that are built” (Adams, 1979). Although many research programs have been directed toward identifying the level of fidelity required for effective training (see Adams, 1989, ch. 18), there have been almost no efforts to deliberately reduce simulator fidelity in order to increase training effectiveness. However, in the early 1970s, engineers and test pilots at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center attempted to increase the training effectiveness of flight simulators by distorting the apparent rate of time within the simulator (Hoey, 1976; Kolf, 1973). Normally, simulator time-the apparent rate of time within a simulated environment-equals real-time or clock-time, which is the unalterable passage of time in the real world. In above real-time or compressed-time simulation, simulator time passes more quickly than real-time (Crane & Guckenberger, 1977). Time-lapse photography showing a flower’s growth for a month in one minute demonstrates compressed-time.
