SafE and SustAinable shiP OpeRaTion (SEAPORT) – Pilot study

Simulation has been a vital tool for the training of maritime personnel for many years. It provides a safe environment to learn and practice real-world skills without risk to crews or vessels. While there is existing evidence for the use of simulation in numerous industries, there is a lack of evidence to suggest that training simulators are of sufficient fidelity/validity to support transfer to real-world performance. The aim of any training simulator is to reproduce aspects of a task for training purposes (e.g., perceptual information and behavioural constraints) without reproducing others (e.g., danger and cost; Gray, 2002). If simulators are to be effective, they must elicit successful transfer of training to the real-world. To achieve this, the simulator must provide a sufficient level of validity, that is, it must be representative of the real-world skill to which they intend to train (Gray, 2019; Harris et al., 2019). While Virtual Reality (VR) and simulation training has already been used within the applied field across multiple domains e.g., to train sporting skills (Gray, 2019; Neumann et al., 2018), train surgeons (Gurusamy et al., 2008) within rehabilitation (Adamovich et al., 2009) and within the military (Pallavicini et al., 2016), there is a lack of data supporting the validity and fidelity of such training environments. Therefore, more rigorous testing of the validity and fidelity of environments is required before they should be widely adopted as a training method (Harris et al., 2019). Within the maritime industry, there is a need to properly assess the validity and fidelity of simulated training environments. If simulation is deemed a valid training medium, there are important implications for increasing trainees’ access to realistic and safe practice and reducing the amount of sea time trainees must complete at each stage of their training, thus minimising the risk to crews or vessels. As such, the proposed project aims to contribute to an improved understanding of the efficacy and effectiveness of simulated maritime training by evaluating the level of face validity and physical fidelity of the maritime centre.