A prior study addressed whether practicing on both an excavator and a loader result in poorerlearning of excavator operation than practicing solely on the excavator. Performance of a controlsfamiliarization task, requiring selection of a control action in response to a stimulus, showed nocost or benefit from inserting practice on a simulated loader between learning sessions on a simulatedexcavator. The present study sought to verify whether alternating between the excavator andloader yields a similar outcome for a more complex truck-loading task with multiple subgoals andrequiring perceptual-motor coordination. The number of sessions was increased to examine thepossible interference when participants continued alternating between the machines. The groupwhose excavator operating practice was interrupted by practice on the loader continued to showimprovement on the excavator, with performance picking up where it had left off. These resultsimply that operators can train on two machines concurrently without disrupting learning.
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