She said that when the FO did not know what to do, he became extremely anxious and would start pushing a lot of buttons without thinking about what he was pushing, just to be doing something.
You'd think that the simulator would be able to detect inappropriate button pushes in a given situation, and produce a report stating that it had happened more than <some threshold> times during an exercise. That should flag the pilot for further evaluation and training...
That isn't how aircraft simulators work. They simulate the aircraft, not the exact expected behavior.
For example, if an electrical system warning presents itself the pilot might first turn off all in flight entertainment. This won't necessarily solve the problem, but the plane can fly fine without in flight entertainment.
They presumably record the behaviour of the person flying the simulator though during the simulated emergency (or any situation). What I'm suggesting is that a report is generated from recorded data to show that the pilot didn't do what was necessarily expected - turning off the in-flight entertainment is an example which might be judged an odd but innocuous action, but turning off the engines, or hammering 50 buttons in the space of a minute, or something, would indicate behaviour that is well outside of the expected parameters. That should be flagged.
If the other flight crew in the simulator at the same time can tell that the pilot was behaving erratically then the simulator reporting software should be able to tell as well.
You'd think that the simulator would be able to detect inappropriate button pushes in a given situation, and produce a report stating that it had happened more than <some threshold> times during an exercise. That should flag the pilot for further evaluation and training...