Development of the TARGET Training Effectiveness Tool and Underlying Algorithms Specifying Training Method - Performance Outcome Relationships

Abstract : A four-year research effort was conducted to collect empirical evidence on the effectiveness of different training methods for acquiring and transferring complex cognitive skills (see Plott et al., 2014). To accomplish this goal, a series of meta-analyses were conducted examining six training methods (training wheels, scaffolding, part-task training, increasing difficulty, learner control, and exploratory learning). Algorithms were then developed to quantify the relationships between the training methods, performance, and various moderating factors. These algorithms can be used to perform tradeoff analyses to determine the effectiveness of different combinations of training method(s), task/skill type(s) being trained (e.g., perceptual, psychomotor), trainee characteristics (e.g., experience, aptitude), and type(s) of training performance outcomes (e.g., learning, transfer). Finally, to ensure these research findings and algorithms would be easily consumable by training developers and researchers, a training effectiveness tool was developed, called TARGET (which stands for Training Aide: Research and Guidance for Effective Training). This tool can aid training developers and researchers in making decisions concerning the most appropriate training method(s) to use depending on their particular training context. This report focuses on the algorithm development completed as a part of this larger research effort, as well as the algorithm incorporation into TARGET.