Comparison of the Emotional Response between Real World Environment and Simulation

Abstract

This experiments aim is to determine whether trainees differ in their emotional response to two different training environments. The two training environments were the real system (i.e. a truck with an attached trailer) and an advanced truck driving simulator. 52 experienced truck drivers were investigated with a standardized questionnaire. The task to be learned was a driving manoeuvre: reverse park a truck from one side of the street to the other. The questionnaire was filled out by the participants twice: at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The results show similar responses for the two training environments except for the factor "pleasure": there was an increase for the participants which trained in the simulator. The results of this experiment show that the emotional responses between participants which trained in a driving simulator are comparable to their counterparts trained in the real system.