Military Command Decisionmaking Expertise.

Deckert, J. C.; Entin, Elleen B.; Entin, Elliot E.; MacMillan, Jean

doi:10.21236/ada306801

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…If the development of tactical thinking skills follows a consistent and discernable pattern then individual performance levels can be diagnosed, and training can be more efficiently targeted to individual needs. One consistent finding from a number of efforts (Deckert, et al, 1994;Ross, et al, 2003;Carnahan, Lickteig, Sanders, & Durlach, in preparation) shows that in novices the amount of attention focused on own forces, i.e., the theme Use All Assets Available, is much higher than the amount of attention placed on the enemy, i.e., the theme Model a Thinking Enemy, but becomes more balanced or reverses with the development of greater expertise. The finding has been noted in other fields, e.g., chess, where it is a frequent observation that novices focus on their own plans and moves and seem to ignore what the opponent is doing.…”

Section: Future Directionssupporting

confidence: 58%

“…If those desired elements of form have not been clearly identified, then the training will resemble the discovery learning of "train as you fight" more than it does deliberate practice. A critical component in the construction of the Think Like a Commander training for tactical adaptive thinking -an explicit set of expert tactical thinking behaviors -was formulated based on ARI interviews and research with acknowledged tactical experts (Deckert, Entin, Entin, MacMillan, & Serfaty, 1994;Lussier, 1998;Ross & Lussier, 2000). These eight behaviors are termed 'themes' of the training.…”

Section: 'Think Like a Commander' Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptive Thinking Training For Tactical Leaders

Lussier¹,

Shadrick²

2004

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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SummaryThis paper reports a series of research efforts embodied in the U.S. Army's Think Like a Commander training program. The work is interesting because it seeks to train a cognitive behaviorthinking -using methods that have traditionally been applied to training more observable and measurable behaviors, e.g., marksmanship and gunnery, sports performance. In short, it does not greatly respect a traditional distinction between such things as physical movements, perceptions, and cognitions when it comes to training, rather treats these all as behaviors that are amenable to the same training methods and principles. Deliberate practice techniques were applied to develop exercises to train the task of adaptive thinking in tactical situations. The exercises were used in command preparation courses for U.S. Army officers at the brigade, battalion, and company levels. The approach shows promise and initial data indicate significant performance gains in a key component of battlefield adaptive thinking: the rapid analysis of battlefield situations to identify of key considerations for decision-making. Soviet Chess Training MethodsThe notion that thinking can be trained as a behavior has a precedent in practice. For decades, the Soviet chess machine thoroughly dominated all competition. Chessplayers around the world assumed the Soviets achieved their success solely by extra effort in selecting, developing, and supporting promising players. But did the Soviets have some new and secret training methods that the rest of the world did not? Few imagined that. With the breakup of the USSR, Soviet chess academies became publishing houses. The release of such books as Mark Dvoretsky's Secrets of Chess Training and Positional Play surprised the chess world. It seemed that the Soviets did have methods they hadn't revealed. Subsequently, English-speaking chess trainers have written manuals that applied the Soviet methods to selected aspects of the game, for example Andrew Soltis' book on how to calculate in chess, titled The Inner Game of Chess, presents training exercises to develop skill at visualizing future positions by moving pieces in one's imagination.Researchers at the U.S Army Research Institute (ARI) saw a parallel between the problem of training battlefield commanders to think adaptively in tactical situations and that of training chess grandmasters. They analyzed the Soviet training manuals to understand their methods. The difference between the Soviet methods and traditional chess instruction is, in a sense, the difference between education and training. The rest of the world studied the game of chess, its strategies and tactics, and tried to understand why one move was better than another. As students studied the game, they acquired knowledge about chess and understanding of its principles. They educated themselves about the game of chess. The Soviets did that as well, but also studied the human processes of finding good moves and avoiding errors, of searching and evaluating chess positions, and of controlling emotio...

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Section: Future Directionssupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: 'Think Like a Commander' Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Thinking Training For Tactical Leaders

Lussier¹,

Shadrick²

2004

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…If the development of tactical thinking skills follows a consistent and discemable pattern then individual performance levels can be diagnosed, and training can be more efficiently targeted to individual needs. One consistent finding from a number of efforts (Deckert, et al, 1994;Ross, et al, 1999;Camahan, Lickteig, Sanders, & Durlach, 2004) shows that in novices the amount of attention focused on own forces, i.e., the theme Use All Assets Available, is much higher than the amount of attention placed on the enemy, i.e., the theme Model a Thinking Enemy, but becomes more balanced or reverses with the development of greater expertise. The finding has been noted in other fields, e.g., chess, where it is a frequent observation that novices focus on their own plans and moves and seem to ignore what the opponent is doing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…If those desired elements of form have not been clearly identified, then the training will be inefficient, resembling discovery learning more than it does deliberate practice. A critical component in the construction of the Think Like a Commander training for tactical adaptive thinking -an explicit set of expert tactical thinking behaviors -was formulated based on ARI interviews and research with acknowledged tactical experts (Deckert, Entin, E. B, Entin, E. E., MacMillan, & Serfaty, 1994;Lussier, 1998;Ross & Lussier, 1999). These eight behaviors are termed 'themes' of the battlefield thinking.…”

Section: Think Like a Commander Themesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Think Like a Commander Training Program

Shadrick¹,

Lussier²

2004

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…The differences primarily derive from the amount of mentoring and interactive support offered to the student, and the extent to which that mentoring is focused on a set of key command themes or cognitive skills derived from the results of extensive interviews with expert tactical thinkers (Deckert, Entin, Entin, MacMillan, & Serfaty, 1994 ComMentor will provide a novel capability to understand, critique, and discuss proposed courses of action in a Socratic mode, guiding the student as an expert would. Socratic instruction is a kind of teaching interaction typically applied in high-level professional education (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Socratic Tutors for High-Level Command Skills

Domeshek¹,

Holman²,

Ross³

2005

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Under stress, human decision-makers revert to their best-practiced habits. This includes military commanders who may fail to act effectively under pressure for lack of sufficient practice. The US Army Research Institute (ARI) developed a training methodology emphasizing repeated exposure to small challenging vignettes enabling drill on command decision-making. Rather than role-play to a simulated conclusion, mentors focus on analyses and dialogues that explore reasoning and rationale. Adoption of this methodology in courses at Forts Leavenworth and Knox is helping to validate this approach to honing command skills. However, intense practice with human mentors is problematic as there are generally too few expert mentors available. This paper describes an ongoing Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) project to develop automated intelligent tutors to fill the role of expert mentors. This project is developing a novel capability to understand, critique, and discuss proposed courses of action in a Socratic mode, guiding the student as an expert would. The approach emphasizes multi-modal interaction (e.g., language and graphics), models of expert human tutors, and development of authoring tools to reduce training system costs.The paper presents data from analyses of expert mentor and student dialogues during "tactical decision games." It then describes how this data is used to develop and assess the project's intelligent tutor. Additional preliminary data from early informal formative evaluation of the Phase I prototype system, and initial student feedback on some Phase II refinements is also reported.Ongoing complementary efforts include a related Phase II SBIR with a different ITS approach, and a computerbased program developed by ARI that human instructors are using in the Armor Captains Course at Fort Knox's University of Mounted Warfare. Author's BiographiesDr. Eric A. Domeshek is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Project Manager at Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University, where his work focused on cognitive modeling and technology, most especially on development of Case Based Reasoning (CBR). While working as Research Faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology, he helped launch the EduTech institute, and became involved in educational applications of AI and CBR. He continued to work on educational and training technology while on faculty at Northwestern University's Institute for the Learning Sciences. For the last three years, Dr. Domeshek has conceived and managed a variety of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) projects at Stottler Henke. His main effort currently focuses on dialogue-oriented tutors such as the ComMentor system described here. Mr. Elias Holman is an Report Documentation PageForm Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and revi...

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Military Command Decisionmaking Expertise.

Cited by 8 publications

References 2 publications

Adaptive Thinking Training For Tactical Leaders

Adaptive Thinking Training For Tactical Leaders

Assessment of the Think Like a Commander Training Program

Automated Socratic Tutors for High-Level Command Skills

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