Staying sharp: Retention of military knowledge and skills

Abstract

Sciences (ARI) has been investigating soldiers' retention of skills and knowledge learned during training. How well a soldier remembers what was learned in training influences how well a soldier can later perform a task and determines the frequency with which retraining needs to occur. Understanding the nature of skill retention thus has important implications for both Army training and personnel policy.The research reported here summarizes over 25 years of work on the topic of skill retention. The report emphasizes research performed by ARI, but also includes relevant research by other military and academic laboratories. Products from ARI research include a model for predicting skill retention, endorsed by TRADOC and applied numerous times, most recently to the 'peace support operations' tasks trained to troops deploying to Bosnia. This research has also led to personnel policy changes, such as increasing the window (from 12 months to 24 months following active duty) for the initial recall of soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve in the event of a mobilization. We plan to continue research on skill retention issues, focusing on the digital skills required for the decentralized, fluid, fast-paced operations of the future.

The training, retention, and assessment of digital skills: A review and integration of the literature

“…Regardless of the measure, all show essentially the same result; individuals with higher ability levels require less time to learn than individuals of lower ability (Adams, 1987;Schendel et al, 1978). In terms of retention, most research finds that aptitude does not affect the rate at which skills are lost, but because individuals with a higher aptitude typically reach a higher level of proficiency following a given training period, those differences in initial proficiency are preserved at the time of the retention test (Hagman & Rose, 1983;Schendel et al, 1978;Wisher et al, 1999).…”

“…Tasks may require individuals to recall definitions, names, or locations. Tasks that require the recall of fewer than 8 items are remembered well but tasks that require the recall of more than 8 items suffer rapid decay (Wisher et al, 1999). In general, the greater the physical task demands the faster the decay, although surprisingly tasks that require only simple motor control such as hammering a nail decay faster than tasks that require moderate precision (Rose, Radtke, Shettel, & Hagman, 1985a).…”

“…With regard to military skills, a paper by Rose et al (1985) has shown that for discreet procedural skills, task complexity, the demands of the task, the availability ofjob aids, and the presence of stress or a time limit all affect decay rate. These factors have been reviewed in detail in several reports (Hagman & Rose, 1983;Wells & Hagman, 1989;Wisher et al, 1999) and so will be covered briefly here.…”

“…Other evidence of the persistence of declarative memory comes from the experiment of IDF missile operators, in which knowledge about procedural skills did not decline until after 12 months (Henik et al, 1999). Similarly, in a review by Wisher et al (1999), memory for decision skills and job knowledge showed relatively minimal decay (generally less than 20% loss) over a two year period.…”

“…When it is manipulated experimentally, the two levels of learning most often studied are proficiency training (i.e., training until the task can be completed without error at least once) and mastery training or overlearning (i.e. training some number of additional trials beyond proficiency, e.g., Wisher, Sabol, Ellis, & Ellis, 1999).…”