Mental models in process visualization - Could they indicate the effectiveness of an operator's training?

Nowadays process plant visualizations and operations take place without the operator's physical presence at the technical device. As a conesquence a lot of complex systems must be visualized simultaneously on one or more monitors. Conventional two-dimensional man machine interfaces hardly meet the requirements of those increasing complexity of production processes. One approach to deal with the increasing number of faults during process plant monitoring is the creation and implementation of 3D visualizations. We examined the development of mental models with 2D and 3D visualizations and different forms of training (freeze image vs. slider vs. slider with interaction) regarding completeness and structure as well as the relation of the quality of problem solving and the accurate recognizing of critical situations. Additionally, we investigated the mental demand in different groups of visualization and training.