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Updated: May 28, 2026
A Computerized Functional Skills Assessment and Training Program Targeting Technology Based Everyday Functional Skills
Published on: February 13, 2020
Physical fidelity versus cognitive fidelity training in procedural skills acquisition
Ilanit Hochmitz1, Nirit Yuviler-Gavish
1Technion--Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Objective:
The current study examined whether training simulators for the acquisition of procedural skills should emphasize physical fidelity or cognitive fidelity of the task.
Background:
Simulation-based training for acquiring and practicing procedural skills is becoming widely established. Generally speaking, these simulators offer technological sophistication but disregard theory-based design, leaving unanswered the question of what task features should be represented in the simulators.The authors compared real-world training and two alternative virtual trainers, one emphasizing physical fidelity and the other cognitive fidelity of the task.
Method:
Participants were randomly assigned to one of four training groups in a LEGO assembly task: virtual-physical fidelity, cognitive fidelity, real world, and control. A posttraining test to assess the development of procedural skills was conducted.
Results:
Both the virtual-physical fidelity and cognitive fidelity training methods produced better performance time than no training at all, as did the real-world training. The cognitive fidelity training was inferior in terms of test time compared to the real-world training, whereas the virtual-physical fidelity training was not. In contrast, only the real-world and the cognitive fidelity groups, and not the virtual-physical fidelity group, required significantly less time than the control group for error correction.
Conclusion:
The two training methods have complementary advantages.
Application:
Combining physical fidelity and cognitive training methods can enhance procedural skills acquisition when real-world training is not practicable.
