In training assembly workers in a factory, there are often barriers such as cost and lost productivity due to shutdown. The use of virtual reality (VR) training has the potential to reduce these costs. This research compares virtual bimanual haptic training versus traditional physical training and the effectiveness for learning transfer. In a mixed experimental design, participants were assigned to either virtual or physical training and trained by assembling a wooden burr puzzle as many times as possible during a twenty minute time period. After training, participants were tested using the physical puzzle and were retested again after two weeks. All participants were trained using brightly colored puzzle pieces. To examine the effect of color, testing involved the assembly of colored physical parts and natural wood colored physical pieces. Spatial ability as measured using a mental rotation test, was shown to correlate with the number of assemblies they were able to complete in the training. While physical training outperformed virtual training, after two weeks the virtually trained participants actually improved their test assembly times. The results suggest that the color of the puzzle pieces helped the virtually trained participants in remembering the assembly process.

While training participants to assemble a 3D wooden burr puzzle, we compared results of training in a stereoscopic, head tracked virtual assembly environment utilizing haptic devices and data gloves with real world training. While virtual training took participants about three times longer, the group that used the virtual environment was able to assemble the physical test puzzle about three times faster than the group trained with the physical puzzle. We present several possible cognitive explanations for these results and our plans for future exploration of the factors that improve the effectiveness of virtual process training over real world experience.