Training

1. Training Human Factors Psychology Dr. Steve

2. Background • Four types of factors that lead to poor performance: • The environment is in the way • e.g. lack of proper tools to perform the job • Employees lack skill or knowledge • this can can be caused by lack of feedback • There are no, few, or improper incentives • doing a good job could result in gaining more work • Employees are not internally motivated • e.g. certain jobs that lack pride or meaning (flipping burgers)

3. Personnel Selection • Can be seen as the first approach taken to maximize the skills and knowledge needed by an employee to perform a job • Focus on identifying reliable means of predicting future job performance • Methods include: interviews, work histories, background checks, tests, references, & work samples

4. Personnel Selection • Can be seen in terms of signal detection theory: • hit = hiring a person who will be good at the job • miss = not hiring someone who would do a good job • false alarm = hiring someone who ends up being unacceptable or doing a poor job • correct rejection = not hiring someone who, in fact, would not do a good job if they had been hired

5. Basics of Selection • First a thorough job analysis is needed • Identify & prioritize KSAs • Find the applicants who have the KSAs or have the ability to acquire them • Want a measure that is highly correlated with ultimate job performance (i.e., criterion-related validity)

6. Selection Tests and Procedures • Selection errors can have serious negative consequences for the company • cost related to high turnover • legal problems • (e.g. adverse impact) • low employee moral or resentment • supervisors having to spend too much time on documentation of problems

7. Commonly used Selection Test and Procedures • Measures of Cognitive Ability • e.g. general ability, verbal ability, numerical ability, perceptual speed, memory... • used as valid predictors of job performance • Measures of Physical Ability and Psychomotor Skills • e.g. static strength, dynamic strength, gross body coordination, manual dexterity, stamina ... • e.g. UPS worker

8. Commonly used Selection Test and Procedures • Personality Assessment • clinical or personality dimensions • e.g. MMPI • Work Samples • applicants complete a sample of work necessary for successful job performance • e.g. making a basket for an NBA player • Structured Interviews

9. Future Trends in Human Performance Intervention • Accelerating turnover of knowledge • Rapid advances in information technology • An increasingly diverse work force • Increasing international business competition

10. Performance Support Continuum of possible performance support mechanisms for learning how to use software Near to Task Far From Task OnlineTutorial User Guides Reference Manuals Help Line Online Help Product Affordances Classroom Training

11. Training Program DesignSimplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model • Phase I – Front-End Analysis • Needs Assessment– to determine whether training is the most appropriate method • Organizational Analysis– determine where in the organization is training required, and whether training will be accepted by organization • Task Analysis– determine training objectives by examining tasks necessary to perform job • Trainee (Person) Analysis– determine KSA’s of potential trainees and who should receive training • Functional Specifications – defines the training objectives, performance requirements, and constraints

12. Training Program DesignSimplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model • Phase II – Design and Development • Generate Design Concepts • Story-boarding, cost-benefit analysis • Formative Evaluation • Focuses on process and usability, provides feedback so that design changes can be made prior to development • Full-Scale Development • Creating the medium to present the learning curriculum

13. Training Program DesignSimplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model • Phase III – System Evaluation • Develop Criteria – should be consistent with training objectives • Levels of Criteria (Kirkpatrick) for summative evaluation • Reaction – feedback from trainees as to whether they liked the training • Learning – test whether trainees learned the material • Behavioral – determine whether training led to measurable changes in performance on the job • Results – utility of training or how much cost savings was derived from implementing training • Design Evaluation Program • Collect/Analyze Data • Modify training based on empirical data

14. Guidelines for Instructional Development* • Training Validity:Instructional events that comprise the training method should be consistent with the cognitive, physical, or psychomotor processes that lead to mastery • Active Learning:Learner should be induced to produce the capability • e.g. practice behaviors, recall info from LTM, apply principles in doing task • Feedback Delivery:All available sources of relevant feedback should be used, & should be accurate, credible, timely, informative & constructive • Self-efficacy:Instructional processes should enhance trainee self-efficacy and expectations that the training will be successful and lead to valued outcomes • Trainee Aptitude:Training methods should be adapted to differences in trainee aptitudes and prior knowledge *Adapted from research by Campbell

15. Training Media Click for bad example of Audio Air Force Training Guide • Audio-Visual (AV) Material– videos, films, slide presentations, used to present info multiple times

16. Training Media Example of CAI • Interactive Multi-Media – computer driven training system using text, graphics, video, auditory information • Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) / Computer-Based Training (CBT)

17. Training Media • Simulation / Virtual Reality– imitation of the real environment

18. Training Media and Strategy Guidelines* Link to decision aid for selecting training media • Simulation:effective for teaching many tasks and skills e.g., perceptual motor skills, conceptual tasks, and team functions • Computer-based instruction:provide capability to review and branch and include skill diagnosis and remediation • Sound:provides helpful cues in instructional presentations • these cues can be satisfied with relatively low fidelity but extremely high timely executions • Induce Motivation:Instruction should provide feedback control of both stimulus and reinforcement variables • Reduce Cognitive Load: training features should limit the number of stimuli (and extraneous stimuli) presented at any one time to avoid requiring inordinate attention from students *Guidelines are a subset adapted from Salvendy’s Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics

19. control time – transfer time time savings %Transfer = X 100 = X 100 control time control time time savings training time Training Effectiveness Ratio (TER) = Transfer of Training • Transfer of Training – how well learning in one environment, enhances performance in another. • Issues of training efficiency: • What provides best learning in shortest time? • What will lead to longest retention? • What is most cost effective?

20. Negative Transfer • Negative Transfer– learning in one environment interferes with performance in the other. • caused when one learns different response to same or similar stimulus. • old response competes with new response for same stimulus. • must unlearn old response • ex: when switching from Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel software, the spreadsheets look the same, but require different commands for creating formulas and specifying cell ranges.

21. Guidelines for Enhancing Transfer • Generalizability:Provide practice in a variety of stimulus situations so that a student may generalize their knowledge • Transfer Goal:Use a rote or algorithmic approach if near transfer is the goal of instruction • Visual Demonstrations:Training which incorporates visual demonstrations provides positive transfer to real-world situations • Guided Training (training wheels):Gradually decrease the amount of cues, prompts, and guides such that none (that would not be found on the job) remain at the end of training • Functional vs. Physical fidelity:functional fidelity appears to be a stronger influence in transferring knowledge from the learning environment to the operational setting

22. Training System Fidelity • Fidelity– realism of the training device • Physical Fidelity– how realistic training device appears • Functional Fidelity– how well device trains concepts Fidelity Issues: • Expense – more realism, greater cost • Necessity – many tasks can be learned as well or better by simplifying task in training (lowered fidelity) • Negative transfer – if training environment is very close to real environment, then things that are different may lead to negative transfer.

23. Training Techniques • Overlearning - practice above & beyond that necessary for errorless performance • Increases resistance to extinction (improves retention) • Increases the ease of “re-learning” • Decreases reaction time • May lead to automaticity Overlearning  Performance Practice Trials

24. Training Techniques • Embedded Training– controlled exercises called up and worked on by trainees operating actual equipment (in training mode) • Provides employees opportunities to practice skills in a variety of common situations to build automaticity • Allows employees to practice skills relevant to situations that might occur infrequently on the job (meltdown at nuclear power plant). • Sometimes referred to as “stimulation” because rather than simulate the equipment it injects signals (stimuli) into the actual equipment

25. Training Techniques • Part-Task Training– learn individual components of task separately, then join together later (segmentation) • Identify task components that are NOT interdependent • Identify most important components • De-emphasize certain components Ejector seat training is only one part of learning to fly

26. Training Techniques • Guided Training (training wheels)– prevents learner from making catastrophic errors • Avoids confusion in learning complex tasks • Don’t eliminate errors altogether (they’re learning material), but keep from making errors that impair learning

27. Training Techniques • Above Real-Time Training– practice trials that are faster than would be experienced on the job • Difficulty of practice assumed to make actual task seem easier. • Like swinging a weighted baseball bat in warm-ups then switching to standard bat in the game • Equivocal results in the research • Violates other principles for enhancing transfer (“train as you fight”)

28. Top 5 Specific Instructional Guidelines* • Use Advance Organizers: At beginning of training, the material/media should clearly inform the trainee of the learning objectives • Provide Knowledge of Results: During practice provide students with immediate knowledge of results about correct and incorrect answers • Develop Mental Models: Emphasize distinctive features which can be remembered in the form of mental pictures instead of abstract words • e.g. diagrams, pictures, charts, acronyms • Segment Training: Break down the overall learning task into manageable steps or unit when any of the following conditions exist: • lower ability students, complex material, & overall task composed of small parts • Part-task / Whole-task Training: Provide learner practice on specific components of the task for: a) simple task-practice in entirety, & b) complex task-practice in parts and then in entirety *Guidelines are a subset adapted from Salvendy’s Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics

29. Human Factors Application to Athletic Training • Demonstration of human factors research tools (eye tracking) for improving psychomotor performance (golf, basketball) Click here for link to PBS program, Scientific American Frontiers