Using simulators for learning#
There are three general types of simulator you can use for training: basic simulators that use simple objects and your imagination, simulators running on personal computers, and full-scale simulators used by advanced training organisations. You can also use the real equipment — the aircraft, yacht or car. In this section I look at all of these.
A fair amount is known about whether this works. A meta-analysis of flight-simulator training (Hays, Jacobs, Prince & Salas, 1992) found that simulator practice reliably improves real-world performance — but the effect is solid and moderate, not magical, and it varies a lot with how you use the simulator. So treat the sections below as “what each tool is genuinely good for,” not a promise that any simulator makes you better at everything.
Basic simulators#
Basic simulators use simple objects around you to stand in for your real environment — the cockpit of an aircraft, the driver’s seat of a car, the helm of a yacht, the side of an operating table. This helps you become familiar with layouts and controls, and lets you practise manoeuvres that use several controls at once: flying, changing gears while turning, tacking a yacht. Let your imagination run wild on the best way to set it up. See the box titled “Basic simulator example” above for one.
While basic simulation may feel silly, I’d suggest you get over it and just try it. If you don’t have a PC-based simulator, it’s a good alternative — and even if you do, the basic version can be better for procedural skills, the ones where the sequence and the physical reach-and-select matter. Reaching down for the flaps, or pulling the handbrake, using a saucepan beside you is closer to the real action than tapping a key. This fits what the training-transfer literature finds: reproducing the task-relevant cues and movements drives transfer more than how realistic the kit looks (Schmidt & Bjork, 1992). A cheap mock-up that gets the layout and sequence right does a lot of the job.
If this feels like acting like a child — you’re right, and that’s fine. Children are famously good at learning through imaginative, exploratory play, and copying some of that openness makes practice less of a chore. (I’ll resist the tidy claim that this is why children “learn faster than adults” — that comparison is murkier than it sounds, and depends heavily on what’s being learned.)
Personal Computer (PC) based simulators#
Flight simulators are the most realistic and complex PC-based simulators publicly available. But there are many others that may suit your goals.
A quick look around the Internet turns up PC simulators for sailing, surgery, photography, marketing, management, military and war, cars, trucks, trains, construction, ships, weather forecasting, and more. I even found a stapler simulation, with three different models.
You don’t always need specialised software. I’ve mentioned practising public speaking using this setup: find an image of an audience from the presenter’s perspective, project it on the wall, then stand in front of your simulated audience and practise — making eye contact with individuals, for instance. They won’t laugh at your jokes, sadly.
Simulators are useful training tools, and like most useful tools they can work against you if used carelessly. Because they’re easy to access, you’ll often use one without a supervising instructor — so keep these points in mind:
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Get the right instruction first. If you’re just starting out, get proper training before you lean on the simulator. Otherwise you can pick up bad habits there that you later have to unlearn — and habits learned under one set of cues can resurface at the worst time, such as under stress. Tell your instructor you’re using a simulator; they may have useful pointers.
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Don’t become reliant on it. From flight training: when you start navigation, fly some early routes in the simulator before the real flight, to get familiar with the area and procedures. But don’t make a habit of needing it to feel confident before each exercise. After your third real navigation flight, start setting your own routes and flying those, rather than rehearsing your upcoming training route.
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Use it as a supplement, not a substitute. Used well, simulator practice can improve your skills and may reduce the total hours you need on real equipment — but that’s a possible saving, not a guaranteed one, and its size varies with the task and how faithful the practice is. Don’t make cutting hours your goal. Most simulation is still part-task training, so one simulator hour does not equal one hour on the real thing.
If you do save an hour or two, consider spending it on getting better rather than finishing sooner — an optional lesson, some overlearning, a task-variety scenario, or a related topic.
Full-scale simulators#
From the PC, complexity rises sharply. Some flying schools have full-scale enclosed simulators that don’t move; airline training uses full-motion simulators costing millions. Here’s the part worth knowing: across the research, more fidelity does not reliably mean more learning. Added realism greatly increases cost but often adds little to the underlying skill compared with a well-designed cheaper simulator (Hays et al., 1992). So if full-scale rigs are out of reach, you can still gain much of the benefit from basic and PC-based simulation, or from the real equipment.
Real equipment#
Another way to simulate is to use the real equipment without operating it. Learning to fly? Sit in the aircraft before or after your flight and run your checklists without flying it. Learning to sail? Spend time on the yacht and simulate key manoeuvres. Learning to drive? Sit in a parked car and practise what you’re working on. You don’t get all the cues other simulators provide — but you’re performing the tasks for real, in the real space, which keeps the practice realistic.
Combine this with visualisation, or role-play, for added effect.
Takeaway: simulators genuinely help — moderately and reliably, not miraculously. Match the simulator to the skill (basic mock-ups shine for procedures), reproduce the task’s real cues rather than chasing surface realism, and treat any hours saved as room to get better.