SBIR-STTR Award

Current approaches to training development focus primarily on observable behaviors and largely ignore the mediational processes that are now thought to underlie learning. We propose to develop an integrated conceptual framework of skill acquisition using an information processing/cognitive science approach, and to apply that framework to the development of training technology, particularly low cost devices. Based on a review of the literature on cognitive. And motor skill acquisition and on successful low cost trainers, we will develop a model of the skill acquisition process including a definition of the basic elements of skilled performance and an explanation of the cognitive representation of skills. We will make specific recommendations for changes to the instructional system design (ISD) process to incorporate cognitive approaches to training development and to provide a foundation for determining the appropriate task/skill components to be trained with low cost devices.

The overall objective of this Phase II effort is to develop and validate an integrated task analysis methodology incorporating cognitive science concepts within the existing ISD framework. Advances in cognitive science, reviewed in Phase I, provide new ways of characterizing learning and skill development that are more appropriate for the complex tasks requiring training today than the behavioral constructs on which existing ISD procedures were based. These advances deal with how information is processed and organized in memory, how processing resources are allocated, and how mental models are used to structure problem-solving. A handbook will be developed providing methods for conducting a cognitive-based task analysis including procedures for knowledge base analysis, determination of mental models used by novices and experts, and task decomposition and component skill identification. The area of EW tactics will be analyzed using the developed methodology as a means to test and refine it. A microcomputer-based training system will be developed to train one aspect of EW tactics, identified in the task analysis, and subjected to a field evaluation to determine its value in improving performance in the selected skill.