Kevin R. Harris

Training perceptual-cognitive skills: Can sport psychology research inform military decision training?

In military and sports tasks, individuals are often required to perform in a complex and dynamic environment and obtain a tactical advantage over an opponent even when only partial or incomplete information is available. Successful performance in both domains is typically dependent upon the ability to work both independently and as a team in an effective manner by combining perceptual, cognitive, motor, and social skills, often under stressful circumstances. Despite these similarities, and the extensive literature bases amassed on training in each field, there has been little, if any, cross-fertilization or collaboration. We offer a synopsis of perceptual-cognitive and decision skills training research from the fields of sport psychology, expert performance, human factors, and Military Psychology with a view toward highlighting commonalities and differences in approach to training. Attention is drawn to the experimental designs and interventions employed, as well as methodological shortcomings and how these have been addressed. In addition, we highlight the differences in how training recommendations have been derived, discuss questions that have been raised in developing and validating training programs, and, in particular, emphasize the need for evidence-based practice. Our aim is to offer conclusions from the sport psychology literature that can inform the design, structure, content, and implementation of future military decision training.

Skill-based differences in option generation in a complex task: a verbal protocol analysis

In recent models of decision-making, cognitive scientists have examined the relationship between option generation and successful performance. These models suggest that those who are successful at decision-making generate few courses of action and typically choose the first, often best, option. Scientists working in the area of expert performance, on the other hand, have demonstrated that the ability to generate and prioritize task-relevant options during situation assessment is associated with successful performance. In the current study, we measured law enforcement officers’ performance and thinking in a simulated task environment to examine the option generation strategies used during decision-making in a complex domain. The number of options generated during assessment (i.e., making decisions about events in the environment) and intervention (i.e., making decisions about personal courses of action) phases of decision-making interact to produce a successful outcome. The data are explained with respect to the development of a situational representation and long-term working memory skills capable of supporting both option generation processes.

A Theoretical Framework for Simulation in Nursing: Answering Schiavenato’s Call

The aim of this article was to provide a response that supports and extends Schiavenatos call for a theoretically guided approach to simulation use in nursing education.We propose that a theoretical framework for simulation In nursing must first include, as a basis, a theoretical understanding of human performance and how it is enhanced.This understanding will, in turn, allow theorists to provide a framework regarding the utility, application, and design of the training environment, including internal and external validity. The expert performance approach, a technique that recently has been termed Expert-Performance-based Training (ExPerT), is introduced as a guiding frame work for addressing these training needs. We also describe how the theory of deliberate practice within the framework of ExPerT can be useful for developing effective training methods in health care domains and highlight examples of how deliberate practice has been successfully applied to the training of psychomotor and cognitive skills.

Option Generation and Decision Making in Critical-Care Nursing

The recognition-primed decision (RPD) model and Take the First (TTF) heuristic assert that successful and experienced decision makers typically generate relatively few options, and generate a satisficing, or the best, option first. Moreover, the TTF heuristic suggests that as more options are generated the likelihood that the best option will be selected is reduced. An alternative proposal suggests that the ability to anticipate the outcome of a situation is actually positively related to the number of options generated. To test these opposing claims we compared high and low performing critical-care nurses on three simulated critical care scenarios and measured their option generation behaviors and the courses of action pursued. Consistent with RPD and TTF, the data suggest that high performers generate fewer options than low performers during situational assessment. However, counter to RPD and TTF, the current data suggest that the selection of options generated later in the process may actually facilitate better outcomes. Implications for the design of instruction and training materials are discussed.

The effect of attitude toward women on the relative individuation of women and men is mediated by perceived gender subgroups

The present study investigated whether a differential number of perceived subgroups for men and women mediated the previous finding that men and women with more traditional attitudes concerning womens roles individuate men more than women, whereas individuals with less traditional attitudes better individuate women (Stewart, Vassar, Sanchez, & David, 2000). Participants were asked to recall traits of 2 male and 2 female targets described to them. Comparison of memory errors for male vs female targets indicated relative individuation of men and women. Participants also generated subgroups of men and women and indicated their familiarity with these groups. As predicted, relative number of subgroups but not differential familiarity mediated the relationship between attitudes and relative individuation of men and women. More complex representations of women are proposed to facilitate organization of information about new members of this group.

‘Gun! Gun! Gun!’: An exploration of law enforcement officers’ decision-making and coping under stress during actual events

Abstract Research on decision-making under stress has mainly involved laboratory-based studies with few contextual descriptions of decision-making under stress in the natural ecology. We examined how police officers prepared for, coped with and made decisions under threat-of-death stress during real events. A delayed retrospective report method was used to elicit skilled police officers’ thoughts and feelings during attempts to resolve such events. Reports were analysed to identify experiences of stress and coping, and thought processes underpinning decision-making during the event. Officers experienced a wide range of events, coped with stress predominantly via problem-focused strategies, and adapted their decision-making under stress based on the available context. Future officer training should involve a greater variety of training scenarios than is involved in current training, and expose trainees to the possible variants of each situation to foster better situational representation and, thus, a more reliable and adaptive mental model for use in decision-making. Practitioner Summary: This study concerns decision-making and coping strategies used by skilled police officers during real threat-of-death situations. Officers’ decision-making strategies differed according to the complexity of the situation and they coped with the stress of these situations via attempts to resolve the situations (e.g. by planning responses) and, to a lesser extent, via attempts to deal with their emotions.

An initial search for visual overshadowing

A consistent, albeit fragile, finding over the last couple of decades has been that verbalization of hard-to-verbalize stimuli, such as faces, interferes with subsequent recognition of the described target stimulus. We sought to elicit a similar phenomenon whereby visualization interferes with verbal recognition—that is, visual overshadowing. We randomly assigned participants (n = 180) to either concrete (easy to visualize) or abstract (difficult to visualize) sentence conditions. Following presentation, participants were asked to verbalize the sentence, visualize the sentence, or work on a filler task. As predicted, visualization of an abstract verbal stimulus resulted in significantly lower recognition accuracy; unexpectedly, however, so did verbalization. The findings are discussed within the framework of fuzzy-trace theory.

Team deliberate practice in medicine and related domains: a consideration of the issues.

A better understanding of the factors influencing medical team performance and accounting for expert medical team performance should benefit medical practice. Therefore, the aim here is to highlight key issues with using deliberate practice to improve medical team performance, especially given the success of deliberate practice for developing individual expert performance in medicine and other domains. Highlighting these issues will inform the development of training for medical teams. The authors first describe team coordination and its critical role in medical teams. Presented next are the cognitive mechanisms that allow expert performers to accurately interpret the current situation via the creation of an accurate mental “model” of the current situation, known as a situation model. Following this, the authors propose that effective team performance depends at least in part on team members having similar models of the situation, known as a shared situation model. The authors then propose guiding principles for implementing team deliberate practice in medicine and describe how team deliberate practice can be used in an attempt to reduce barriers inherent in medical teams to the development of shared situation models. The paper concludes with considerations of limitations, and future research directions, concerning the implementation of team deliberate practice within medicine.