Abstract
Visual display systems have become so advanced with available options, it is difficult to decide which type of system is needed. Traditionally, the choice has been to select the system with the greatest level of functional and physical fidelity that can be procured. While most would assume that more realism results in better training and performance, research (Dwyer, 1972; Marsh, 1983; Richey, 1986) suggests otherwise. Realism in a display system may serve to be more distracting than helpful, depending upon the training objective. The initial intent of this project was to locate any and all information pertaining to visual display characteristics as they relate to human visual functions or to visual training requirements. A selected literature search was conducted to locate relevant information, data bases or taxonomies that relate the above information. No current taxonomy of this kind was located; therefore, the efforts of the project turned in the direction of formulating a taxonomic structure based on information derived from various disciplines such as instructional technology, human psychology, and computer engineering. General guidelines only, with no specific information, pertaining to the selection of visual media for given situations were found in the instructional technology literature. Based on those guidelines, four general types of presentation media were selected: alphanumerics, 2-dimensional graphics, 3-dimensional graphics, and scene quality. Next, display specifications for these presentations were identified through the aid of engineering and vendor-provided design parameters. Finally, human limitations were applied and psychophysical transformations allowed the determination of final display descriptions.
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