Current Grant Support

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES:

The goal of this project is to construct a theoretical and empirical framework that can account for and make accurate predictions about the effectiveness of different training methods over the full range of militarily relevant tasks. The ability to predict the outcomes of different training methods on particular tasks will, as a natural by-product, point to ways to optimize training. Many of the basic mechanisms of knowledge and skill acquisition are similar across a variety of perceptual, cognitive, and motor tasks. However, some specific skills have unique features that might demand special training techniques. To date, only a few studies have compared learning in different types of tasks. We will focus on an analysis of which findings, mechanisms, and principles broadly generalize across learning types and task requirements. This evaluation will allow us to make specific predictions about the effectiveness of training and general recommendations to improve training that would apply to virtually any DoD training program. We will also identify the unique features of specific knowledge and skills, where they exist, and how best to train them. We will develop taxonomies for both types of training and types of tasks that will span the range of training types, from classroom to simulator, and task types, from simple individual tasks (e.g., data entry, target detection) to complex tasks involving team cognition. We will extend our taxonomic analysis to include two new dimensions: training principles and performance measures. Two types of working predictive models of training effects will be developed and contrasted for their ability to account for and predict training outcomes: One type of model will be based on IMPRINT, and the other type will be based on the ACT-R approach. We will ensure that these models are mathematically sound, computationally feasible, and DoD applicable.

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES:

The proposed research builds on our earlier studies of skill training, retention of trained skills after a long delay interval, and transfer of trained skills to novel situations. On the basis of that research we were able to develop a set of training principles that optimize the efficiency and durability of trained performance. But we have also discovered that conditions that lead to durability often, and perhaps always, lead to limited flexibility or adaptivity. In fact, in our most recent research, we have found that training has little or no benefit if there are discernable differences between the training and testing situations in the background or context, even if there are no changes made in the primary task requirements. The focus of this proposed project is, thus, to develop training procedures for knowledge and skill that will survive primary task or background changes and, thereby, produce flexible, as well as efficient and durable, performance in military tasks. The proposed experiments are divided into three major groups. Experiments in the first group are designed to understand how individuals can be trained to contend with an unpredictable flow of information often large in quantity, rapidly presented, and ambiguous. Experiments in the second group are aimed to identify training factors that promote adaptive and flexible performance in the field. The final group of experiments examines performance in dynamic and changing task environments. We conclude with an effort to create, still in the laboratory, a complex set of tasks similar to those encountered by a digitally proficient pilot operating a fully computerized cockpit, and not unlike those of the digitally proficient "land warrior" soldier of tomorrow. The major aim of this set of experiments is to determine the extent to which training principles, first established in a simpler laboratory task, generalize to performance under these more complicated conditions.

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES:

On the basis of their own previous research, Healy and Bourne (2001) proposed a set of 13 principles to optimize training for efficient, durable, and flexible performance. These principles were derived from their basic research concerning ways to enhance the efficiency of training, the long-term retention of the trained knowledge and skills, and the flexibility of what is learned for use in other situations. Their principles were limited to those that were supported by their own research results from projects that were funded by the Army Research Institute (see, e.g., Healy & Bourne, 1995, 1998). The 13 principles will provide the initial basis for an up-to-date literature review that will summarize the current state of knowledge concerning training and ways to optimize it. Based on that review, we propose to analyze gaps in the knowledge about training. The identification of these gaps will enable future researchers to fill in the gaps and thereby refine and expand the set of training principles. The eventual principles could then be used to establish effective training programs for future NASA missions, including space missions to Mars.

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES:

The proposed research funded by the American Literacy Council (ALC) involves tutoring elementary school-aged children in reading using a unique teaching tool. The ALC has invented a reading method that uses a phonetic spelling system (SoundSpel) to facilitate the learning of unfamiliar words in print. In this system, each word of text is rewritten beneath the original word using this phonetic system, which eliminates the ambiguity of vowel pronunciation and confusing consonants by rewriting the same sound in the same way no matter the original word. A computer program called Double Line has already been written to change text automatically to this regularized system. The goal of the proposed work is to improve reading skills by allowing the child (or even adult learner) to use the phonetic spelling whenever an unfamiliar word is encountered, while familiar words can be read as they were presented originally. This program could not only facilitate reading but also encourage an increase in the amount of reading. As the amount of reading increases, so will the number of exposures to previously difficult words, so that eventually the child should rely less and less on SoundSpell and should read mostly without its tutoring.