ABSTRACT

This chapter includes material that pertains to the measurement of human performance in virtual environments (VEs). First, the general process of measuring human performance is discussed, including challenges faced by all researchers. After that, the special case of measuring performance of humans in VEs is discussed. The chapter presents a variety of issues related to the reasons for measuring performance in VEs, the de˜nition and speci˜cation of measurable constructs, and the particular methods that could and should be used when measuring performance in VEs. Our goal in this discussion is to include recommendations about the optimal times to measure performance as well as the preferred methods to achieve speci˜c goals. We emphasize psychophysiological measures because of their potential to complement other measures of performance in VEs and because of the recent advancements that have been made in that area. We also emphasize psychometric properties of measurements and factors that affect data integrity.