Dilemmas in Training for Transfer and Retention

Task Variation and Mental Models Divergence Influencing the Transfer of Team Learning

We investigate how teams develop and transfer general problem-solving skills across two ill-structured problems. We draw on cognitive flexibility theory in the instructional literature and propose that teams will achieve a higher performance on a novel task or transfer when they receive an external task intervention (i.e., task variation) and when the internal mechanisms (i.e., divergent mental models) are developed to make sense of the external intervention. To test these predictions, we designed a longitudinal experiment with 17 student teams that encountered task variation during their work on an initial task. Consistent with our predictions, we found that teams that experienced variations and whose mental models diverged during their work on an initial task achieved higher performance on a novel task than teams that experienced variation and whose mental models converged. Implications for the transfer of learning in teams on ill-structured problems are discussed.

A Controlled Evaluation of a Training Course for Staff Who Work with People with Dementia

This controlled intervention was a pilot study that examined the impact of a brief training programme on N= 40 care-workers. The six-week course (one hour per week) produced significant changes in the staff’s attitude and knowledge base; no change was evident for their coping style. In accounting for the results, this article presents a qualitative analysis of the process features underpinning the improvements. The training employed an integrative approach, combining cognitive behavioural and experiential learning methods.

Le transfert des connaissances à la lumière de quelques théories cognitivistes et la recherche d’information

Le concept de transfert a fait l’objet de plusieurs études en psychologie cognitive appliquée à l’éducation en général et à l’apprentissage en particulier. Son examen en sciences de l’information se justifie par le rapprochement fait par certains auteurs dans ce domaine entre apprentissage et recherche d’information. Deux théories issues de la psychologie cognitive* sont explorées. D’abord, des théories rigides à tendance behavioriste telles la théorie des éléments identiques et la théorie du raisonnement par analogie. Ensuite, des théories plus flexibles telles la théorie de la discipline formelle et la théorie de la flexibilité cognitive. La théorie de la flexibilité cognitive semble fournir un cadre conceptuel adéquat pour étudier les processus cognitifs dans la recherche d’information.

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning Among Students by Means of an Electronic Learning Diary: A Training Experiment

Learning in higher education provides students with a high degree of autonomy and therefore requires them to self-regulate their learning. However, not every student copes effectively with this autonomy. Particularly, self-monitoring plays a pivotal role. With this study, we investigated the effect of a standardized electronic learning diary on self-regulation competence in the context of an academic teacher training program. The diary was used (a) as an online assessment tool to register self-regulation, motivational, and volitional states over time and (b) as an instrument for implicit intervention aimed at improving self-monitoring. In a pretest–posttest control group design, we compared two courses (N = 65) over one study term, one course serving as the experimental group (EG) with learning diaries. The EG showed higher gains in metacognitive attitude scores; additional process analyses revealed a positive trend for estimated learning efficacy. Results suggest that the intervention could benefit from explicit training to strengthen the effects.

The effects of heuristic rule training on operator performance in a simulated process control environment

In complex work environments, the occurrence of novel system states represents a particular challenge for the design of training. This article is concerned with the use of heuristic rules to prepare operators for the management of unfamiliar fault states. An experiment was carried out to examine the effects of heuristic rule training on operator performance and system management behaviour. Thirty-nine trainee operators from the chemical industry took part in the study. They were trained for 4 h on a PC-based simulation of a process control task. Operators in the experimental group received training on heuristic rules while operators in the control group did not. One week later the operators participated in a 70-min testing session. While the results showed that heuristic rules training led to better diagnostic performance, it was also associated with increased operator fatigue and impaired secondary task performance. The implications of the findings for using heuristic rule training are discussed.

Time Management Problems and Discounted Utility

The lens of behavioral decision theory offers a new perspective for research on time management. The basic idea of this approach is that people discount future consequences of their time management decisions, meaning that they work on tasks with smaller but sooner outcomes rather than on tasks with larger but later outcomes. The authors performed 2 experimental studies to test whether people are sensitive to differences in the discounted utility of time management decisions. In Experiment 1, they used vignettes of typical time management situations; Experiment 2 was a laboratory simulation (an in-basket task that was part of a training assessment). Participants in both studies were German students. As expected, manipulating the discounted utility of options resulted in different time management decisions. In Experiment 1, reactions to time management situations were judged as less likely if the reactions had lower discounted utilities. In Experiment 2, people spent less time on an interruption.

Learning from errors in a driving simulation: effects on driving skill and self-confidence

Two experiments investigated the effect of making errors during training (error training) on a driving simulator versus learning from examples of errors (guided error training) on driving skill and confidence. Experiment 1 indicated that compared with errorless learning (where participants drove through a training run not designed to elicit errors), error training led to significantly better transfer to driving tests that were analogous to those situations encountered in training and more effective use of strategies for coping with a novel driving situation. Error training also reduced self-confidence in driving skill at the end of training relative to errorless learning. Experiment 2 provided weak evidence of the superiority of guided error training over errorless learning (where the driver in the video did not make any errors) on analogous tests, and no evidence of transfer to a novel test. Furthermore, guided error training did not influence self-confidence in driving skill. The potential value of driving simulators in providing active processing during driver training is discussed, along with the effects of passive and active exposure to errors on driver confidence.