Suchergebnisse

A high-performance skill is defined as one for which (1) more than 100 hours of training are required, (2) substantial numbers of individuals fail to develop proficiency, and (3) the performance of the expert is qualitatively different from that of the novice. Training programs for developing high-performance skills are often based on assumptions that may be appropriate for simple skills. These assumptions can be fallacious when extended to high performance skills. Six fallacies of training are described. Empirical characteristics of high-performance skill acquisition are reviewed. These include long acquisition periods, heterogeneity of component learning, development of inappropriate strategies, and training of timesharing skills. A tentative set of working guidelines for the acquisition of high-performance skills is described.

The literature on practice effects and transfer from single- to dual-task performance is briefly reviewed. The review suggests that single-task training produces limited transfer to dual-task performance. Past theoretical frameworks to explain multitask performance are reviewed. A connectionist/control architecture for skill acquisition is presented. The architecture involves neural-like units at the micro level of processing, with information transmitted between modules at the macro level. Simulations within the architecture exhibit five phases of skill acquisition. Dual-task interference and performance are predicted as a function of the phase of practice a skill has reached. Seven compensatory activities occur in the architecture during dual-task training that do not appear in single-task training, including (1) shedding and delaying tasks and preloading buffers, (2) letting go of high-workload strategies, (3) utilizing noncompeting resources, (4) multiplexing over time, (5) shortening transmissions. (6) converting interference from concurrent transmissions, and (7) chunking of transmissions. Future research issues suggested by the architecture are discussed.

Three groups of subjects, differing in the kinds of augmentation provided, were trained to control a continuously moving track in a second-order system. Differences in performance among the three groups occurred only in transfer experiments when subjects were required to apply their knowledge, or their internal model, to solve system problems. These results indicated that subjects in a parabola-augmented group had learned to internalize this cue and mentally manipulate it to solve system problems even when the cue was not displayed. Subjects in the other two groups, a point-augmented group and a nonaugmented control group, used a set of simplifying rules, some correct and others incorrect, to guide their behavior. The results indicated that accurate control of the system does not necessarily imply that the operator's internal model of the system is also accurate. In addition, augmentation that made the system appear consistent was important in the development of an internal model.

Vigilance decrements are interpreted within a two-process (automatic/control) theory of human information processing, and the theoretical components of the normal vigilance curve are discussed in relation to type of processing and amount of practice. Two experiments were conducted showing significant vigilance decrements when subjects utilized effortful control processing; the normal decrement was not observed when effortless automatic processing was possible. Maximum vigilance decrements occur when subjects must continually and redundantly allocate control-processing resources. Results disconfirm the habituation hypothesis. It is concluded that structuring a task such that there is a consistent relationship between signals and noise will reduce vigilance problems. System design implications suggest that tasks should be structured to minimize continuous and repetitive control processing. Methods for developing vigilance-decrement-resistant automatic processing are discussed.