An experimental study on a training support system utilizing trainee's eye gaze point and think aloud protocol for diagnosing nuclear power plant anomalies

An experimental system has been developed for aiming at supporting the simulator training of diagnosis nuclear power plant anomaly, where an expert provides the instructions to a trainee by his/her own educational and experienced point of view. This system has several characteristics as follows: (1) the expert can provide the instruction through the local area network or the Internet, (2) the training task is the detection of the primary cause of plant anomaly, which is not including the plant operation but requires only thinking, and (3) the system can automatically detects the trainee's view-point and think aloud protocols and provide these two types of information to the expert in real time for supporting his/her instruction. A laboratory experiment using this system was conducted, where an expert, who had really engaged in plant operation as a chief operator, was employed as the instructor for novice students. As the result of analyzing the experimental data, it was found that the two types of information, trainee's viewpoints and his verbal protocols, have some potential of effectiveness for supporting the instructor to estimate the trainees diagnostic thinking process and provide the instruction. (author)