During recent years and with the development of advanced computer graphics techniques, learning methods have evolved from the simple use of textbooks to complementary techniques such as computer-generated environments. Videos taken from specific situations provide another way to train adults. The authors of this paper compare computer-generated environments and videos as learning tools for adults.

For this comparison, they evaluate questionnaires applied to a set of adults to compare a video taken from a border-security situation with human actors and a video game based on the same situation with animated characters. They focus on key factors, such as participants’ attention, memory, and reasoning, and use them as indicators of learning.

The comparison has many deficiencies: the video scenarios and the video game-based scenarios are different; there is a lack of realism in the animated characters (for example, limited facial expression, unsuitable audio, and a male character with a woman’s voice); and the media demonstration and repetition lengths to the adults were different. Furthermore, the events do not have the same sequence order in both scenarios, and although this might help in the evaluation of reasoning through association, the mapping between the questionnaires causes confusion.

Furthermore, interactivity is a basic key feature of many virtual reality training systems. The scenarios presented here are not interactive. The authors propose to perform more research in this area in future work.

The paper itself presents the questionnaire for both scenarios, and many of these questions are repeated. In the context of a four-page paper, this represents an inefficient use of space.

In general, the paper deals with a promising field; however, the results and methodology presented lack scientific and technical foundations.