Refresher interventions and their impact on skill retention of complex, dynamic process control tasks for longer periods of nonuse considering mental workload and situation awareness

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Annette Kluge
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2011 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 213638743

The overriding objective of the proposed experiments is to gain novel insights on enhancing skill retention of complex, dynamic, and procedural tasks with refresher interventions (RIs). There are only a few studies on skill decay and skill retention in the field of process control so far, although skill decay has been recognized as highly relevant with respect to side effects of automation. A RI is supposed to re-establish a specific skill level that was acquired at the end of an initial training after a certain time interval of nonuse. On the basis of our previous experimental findings, we aim to analyze the impact of practice, symbolic rehearsal, and retrieval in an examination situation (testing) as RIs. These RI approaches will be (a) examined regarding parallel and contingent sequences in addition to fixed sequences, (b) examined regarding their effectiveness considering psychophysiological measures of mental workload and situation awareness, and (c) expanded with an innovative concept of a gaze-guiding user interface in which the refresher will take place at the time of retrieval. Fixed, parallel, and contingent sequences represent tasks that need to be completed in man-machine interaction in different fields of process control as well as e.g. aviation to a large part. Consideration of mental workload and situation awareness aims at gaining insights into how RIs need to be designed for often stress inducing, abnormal situations in which skills and knowledge need be retrieved saving as many resources as possible. Although there is some knowledge about the effectiveness of the suggested RIs, testing the effectiveness of these RI approaches for complex, dynamic tasks is novel and important. Our previous research showed that results found on the test effect or symbolic rehearsal regarding simple, non-dynamic tasks can either not be replicated with complex, dynamic tasks or the RIs induce unexpected side effects such as a higher mental workload than RIs which enhance automatization of cognitive schemas (e.g., practice RI). Based on the findings of the suggested experiments, recommendations for designing approaches for skill retention such as refresher training or retrieval enhancing user interfaces can be derived. The findings are essential for designing training for maintaining skills in process control industries with high levels of automation as well as for other fields in which skill retention is essential such as medical science or aviation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Benjamin Weyers