  Although the use of technologies like multimedia and virtual reality (VR) in
training offer the promise of improved learning, these richer and potentially
more engaging materials do not consistently produce superior learning outcomes.
Default approaches to such training may inadvertently mimic concepts like naive
realism in display design, and desirable difficulties in the science of
learning - fostering an impression of greater learning dissociated from actual
gains in memory. This research examined the influence of format of instructions
in learning to assemble items from components. Participants in two experiments
were trained on the steps to assemble a series of bars, that resembled Meccano
pieces, into eight different shapes. After training on pairs of shapes,
participants rated the likelihood they would remember the shapes and then were
administered a recognition test. Relative to viewing a static diagram, viewing
videos of shapes being constructed in a VR environment (Experiment 1) or
viewing within an immersive VR system (Experiment 2) elevated participants'
assessments of their learning but without enhancing learning outcomes. Overall,
these findings illustrate how future workers might mistakenly come to believe
that technologically advanced support improves learning and prefer
instructional designs that integrate similarly complex cues into training.
