MODERN TRAINING MODEL CONCEPTS

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.