ORCID

0000-0001-5233-1272

Keywords

episodic memory, immersion, virtual reality, narrative, training, aviation

Abstract

This research examined the use of episodic facilitation—instructional elements aligned with episodic memory (EM) processes—to affect learners’ memory of simulation training for an aviation procedure. Despite its assumed benefits in industry and theory, virtual reality (VR) has shown limited advantages over conventional media for training procedures, in part because prevailing frameworks emphasize semantic and procedural outcomes, leaving memory of training experiences as events underexamined. To address this gap, this work advances human factors research by examining EM as a design consideration, an outcome, and an explanatory mechanism for how simulation training experiences are remembered. Grounded in theories of EM and VR from the cognitive sciences and human factors disciplines, this dissertation investigates the effects of episodic facilitation, under varying conditions of immersion, on memory formation across the semantic, procedural, and episodic systems during learning of an exterior preflight inspection task.

Participants (N = 61), given either a procedural checklist or a narrative text as an advance organizer, were trained using a task simulation under conditions of lower (PC) or higher (VR) immersion. Participants then completed a battery of measures assessing declarative knowledge, procedural skill, episodic recall, and episodic integration. Results indicated that episodic facilitation through narrative benefited the fluency and vividness of episodic recall conditional on lower immersion. Higher immersion was associated with a benefit at the evaluating level of declarative knowledge and had nuanced effects on episodic integration. Neither manipulation impaired learning nor affected overall quality of experience. Findings were consistent with and extend theory in training research (e.g., equivalency) and the cognitive sciences (e.g., cognitive framing). These results have practical implications for the use of narrative and VR for training procedures in domains such as aviation, and verify the value of EM in training design (episodic facilitation), evaluation (EM as an outcome), and practice (narrative).

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Jentsch, Florian

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Identifier

DP0053265

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