OPTIMATTPRO

OPTIMATTPRO.Analysis of learning activities in simulated and real-world training environments: the case of driving a one- or four-horse team. Funding for a doctoral fellowship provided by the French Institute of Horses and Equestrianism.

• Principal Investigator:Serge Leblanc
• Researchers involved:Guillaume Azéma, Pierre Imbert, Sylvie Pérez,Thérèse Perez-Roux

The objective of this research is to examine and understand the effects of using a complex simulation environment for driving a one- or four-horse team—in a training setting with novice drivers. This simulation environment combines a video platform incorporating a serious game and a reflexive simulator, coupled with real-world instructional scenarios. The aim is, on the one hand, to better understand the process of developing driving skills and, on the other hand, to identify the potential of the various training tools and scenarios created to support this development. More broadly, the goal is to contribute to the technological and scientific discourse on the design and effects of simulation environments. The hypothesis that these environments allow for the creation of an experience “sufficiently” analogous to that of a real-world situation (in its cognitive, interpretive, and/or emotional dimensions) while manipulating situational parameters that support learning— risk elimination, and adjustment of complexity in terms of timing, environmental scope, and the degree of difficulty of the problems encountered—will be tested and discussed. To also engage the motor dimension—which is essential in horse-drawn carriage driving in relation to intended trajectories, the environment, and the horses’ engagement—a so-called “problem-solving” simulator will be designed and tested with various training groups through iterative loops.