Pressures to increase the efficacy and effectiveness of medical training are causing the Department of Defense to investigate the use of simulation technologies. This article describes a comprehensive cognitive task analysis technique that can be used to simultaneously generate training requirements, performance metrics, scenario requirements, and simulator/simulation requirements for medical tasks. On the basis of a variety of existing techniques, we developed a scenario-based approach that asks experts to perform the targeted task multiple times, with each pass probing a different dimension of the training development process. In contrast to many cognitive task analysis approaches, we argue that our technique can be highly cost effective because it is designed to accomplish multiple goals. The technique was pilot tested with expert instructors from a large military medical training command. These instructors were employed to generate requirements for two selected combat casualty care tasks-cricothyroidotomy and hemorrhage control. Results indicated that the technique is feasible to use and generates usable data to inform simulation-based training system design.
Sixty-seven United States Navy maintainers (55 men and 12 women) representing both the aviation and surface communities participated in an experiment examining the efficacy of a simulation to assist technicians in rapidly understanding a system's state. Participants were assigned to one of three groups based on the technicians' experience and one of two experimental conditions: simulation (SIM) or technical manual (TM). The experimental task consisted of a series of eight questions regarding the condition of the S-3 aircraft's nose wheel steering (NWS) system given a set of initial aircraft conditions. To aid in performance of the experimental task, participants assigned to the TM condition were given a paper copy of the S-3 aircraft's organizational maintenance manual for the NWS system, and participants assigned to the SIM condition were given a laptop computer running a computer-based interactive model of the S-3 NWS system. Results showed that regardless of level of expertise, participants assigned to the SIM condition answered questions significantly faster than participants assigned to the TM condition. Further, technicians experienced in nonaviation maintenance assigned to the SIM condition answered questions significantly more accurately than experienced nonaviation technicians assigned to the TM condition.Researchers have sought improvements in maintenance documentation for decades. The advent of cost-effective personal computers (PCs) and digital media standards gave rise to efforts aimed at supporting logistical efficiencies such as the minimization of storage space and the reduction of the time and effort needed to
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