Skill Acquisition Rates and Patterns: Issues and Training Implications

163 Pages·1987·8.116 MB·English

by  Norman E. Lane (auth.)

Recent Research in Psychology
Norman E. Lane
Skill Acquisition Rates
and Patterns
Issues and Training Implications
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
Norman E. Lane
Essex Corporation
Orlando, Florida 32803
With 4 Illustrations
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lane, Norman E.
Skill acquisition rates and patterns.
(Recent research in psychology)
Bibliography: p.
I. Perceptual-motor learning. I. Title.
II. Series.
BF295.L26 1987 152.3'34 87-16544
© 1987 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Reprint of the original edition 1987
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and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone.
Text prepared by author in camera-ready form
Printed and bound by Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
9 8 7 6 5 432 1
ISBN-13: 978-0-387-96579-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-4802-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-4802-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Xl
SUMMARY S-l
INTRODUCTION 1
BACKGROUND AND REQUIREMENT 1
Characteristics of the Training Environment 2
Constraints in the Training Environment 4
Finding Mechanisms for Improvement 6
Requirement 6
OBJECTIVES 8
Acquisition 9
Retention 9
Linkage between Acquisition and Retention 10
DOMAIN OF ANALYSES 10
Scope and Emphasis 10
Comments on the Relevant Literature 11
APPROACH 13
INITIAL DIRECTIONS 13
MODIFYING APPROACH AND EMPHASIS 14
EMPHASIZING RETENTION AND TRANSFER 15
EMPHASIZING PROCESSES OF ACQUISITION 17
ACQUISITION CURVES, SHAPES AND PARAMETERS 19
BASIC PARAMETERS 20
THE NATURE OF ACQUISmON FUNCTIONS 23
Generalized Power Function 23
Generalized Exponential 25
Hyperbolic 27
Logistic 28
Linearity Transforms 29
Positive vs. Negative Acceleration 30
v
COMP ARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ACQUISITION FUNCTIONS 32
The "Universality" of Learning Functions 33
An Information Processing Viewpoint 34
The Power Law 36
Exponential Equations 38
Contrasting the Functions 40
Inconclusiveness of the literature 40
Some additional data 40
CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT CURVE SHAPE 45
Nature of the Task 46
Task Difficulty 49
Degree of Prior Learning 52
Plateaus 53
Criteria for Termination (Mastery Level) 55
Mastery training 58
Distribution of Practice 61
Interference and forgetting 62
Individual Differences 63
Different Training Methods 64
GROUP VS. INDIVIDUAL CURVES 65
Characteristics of Group Curves 65
Characteristics of IndiVIdual Curves 66
Problems in Generalization 66
Factors in Discrepancies 67
Resolving the Controversy 68
BEHAVIORAL VS. ENGINEERING APPROACHES 69
Nature of Tasks Used 70
Emphasis on Group Output 70
Very Long Time Periods 71
Motivation and Interest of Trainee 71
Handling of Poor Performers 71
SOME RELEVANT THEORY AND FINDINGS ON ACQUISITION 74
THE NATURE OF SKILLED PERFORMANCE 76
DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN SKILLS AND ABILITIES 78
Fixed-Abilities, Changing Tasks Models 79
Changing Abilities Models 81
Implications 82
STAGES AND PHASES OF LEARNING 83
M
~~~9
Anderson's Stages 85
Rasmussen's Paradigm 87
VI
DEVELOPMENT OF "AUTOMATIC" BEHAVIOR 89
SCHEMA THEORY EXPLANATIONS OF ACQUISITION 92
CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE 95
KNOWLEDGE OF RESULTS AND FEEDBACK 98
PART-TASK AND TASK SIMPLIFICATION APPROACHES 101
PREDICTION OF TIME TO TRAIN 103
RETENTION 106
ISSUES IN TASK AND SKILL CLASSIFICATION 106
Categories of Classification Systems 107
Categories of Taxonomies 107
GENERALIZATIONS AND DISCUSSION 110
OVERVIEW 110
GENERALIZATIONS FROM THE DATA 111
Interpretation and Uses of Learning Curves 111
More Emphasis on Acquisition than Retention 112
Selection of Termination Points for Training 112
Procedural Tasks 113
Impact and Management of Individual Differences 114
Stages of Skill Acquisition 115
Simplified Part-Task Approaches 115
Contextual Interference 115
GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT THE DATA 116
Descriptive vs. Comparative Data 116
Theory vs. Applications in Studies and Data 117
Constraints on Implementation 118
Sources and Uses of Historical Data 119
Instructional Systems Development and Classification Systems 123
Training Effectiveness Data 124
CONCLUSIONS 125
MECHANISMS FOR IMPROVEMENT 127
OVERVIEW 127
1. COLLECTION AND USE OF TRAINING DATA 127
2. MORE FLEXIBILITY IN TRAINING TIME AND SCHEDULING 127
vii
3. PROGRAMS FOR REFRESHER TRAINING 128
4. R&D ON TASK AND SKILL DESCRIPTION SYSTEMS 129
REFERENCES 130
V11l
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The ideas of many individuals appear in this document. Dr. Jesse Orlansky made
major contributions to formulation of the problem and provided a number of
substantive suggestions. Dr. Martin Tolcott, Dr. Marshall Farr and Dr. Richard
Gibson also made important content and editorial inputs. Appreciation is also due
to Dr. Marshall B. Jones for sharing his thoughts on the subject matter in several
discussions and to Dr. Jack Adams for generously providing an early copy of a draft
article highly relevant to the subject matter of this book. It is likely that none
of these individuals would agree with all the content, but each was instrumental in
shaping some portion.
The material herein was originally prepared for the Institute of Defense
Analyses (IDA), Alexandria, Virginia, in support of the Under Secretary of Defense
for Research and Engineering, U. S. Department of Defense, as part of their focus
on the improvement of training. The material was originally issued as IDA Paper
P-1945, January 1986. The permission of IDA to revise the manuscript for the
present publication is gratefully acknowledged.
ix
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Goodness-of-Fit of Several Learning Functions to Selected
Data Sets 42
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Parameters of Typical Acquisition Curves 22
Figure 2. Curves of Positive, Negative and Changing Acceleration 31
Figure 3. Power, Hyperbolic, Exponential and Log (Trials) Fits to Star
Tracing Data 43
Figure 4. The Effects of Task Difficulty -- Successes in Ring Tosses from
Varying Distances 50
x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AFQT Armed Forces Qualification Test
ASVAB Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
ATI Aptitude-treatment interaction
CI Contextual interference
CMI Computer-Managed Instruction
CTA Critical Task Analysis
DTIC Defense Technical Information Center
IP Information processing
ISD Instructional Systems Development
KR Knowledge of results _
KP Knowledge of performance
ROI Return on investment
SKA Skills and Knowledge Analysis
TSL Time spent learning
TTL Time to learn
xi