The Impact of Observer Presence on Trainees' Mental States and Performance in Remote Military Training with Virtual Humans in Mixed Reality Environment

Remote, vs. in situ, instruction may be regarded to decrease trainee engagement and concentration, potentially reducing training effectiveness. As such, local evaluative observers are often deployed to create the situated atmosphere. However, these observers can also have a negative effect on the trainees’ mental state and performance. This study investigates the impact of a local human observer’s presence on trainees’ mental state and task performance during military training conducted in a mixed reality (MR) environment, where a tele-presence avatar, controlled by the remote instructor, leads the training. An experiment was conducted comparing three conditions: remote training with (1) no observer, (2) a real observer, and (3) a virtual observer. The study found that although the observer, real or virtual, indeed negatively impacted the trainee’s mental state, the remote trainer avatar helped maintain the immersion/concentration, ensuring the trainees achieved the performance comparable to the no observer condition.