Training
Human Factors Psychology
Dr. Steve
Background
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Four types of factors that lead to poor performance:
– The environment is in the way
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e.g. lack of proper tools to perform the job
– Employees lack skill or knowledge
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this can can be caused by lack of feedback
– There are no, few, or improper incentives
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doing a good job could result in gaining more work
– Employees are not internally motivated
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e.g. certain jobs that lack pride or meaning (flipping burgers)
Personnel Selection
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Can be seen as the first approach taken to maximize the skills
and knowledge needed by an employee to perform a job
Focus on identifying reliable means of predicting future job
performance
Methods include: interviews, work histories, background
checks, tests, references, & work samples
Personnel Selection
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Can be seen in terms of signal detection theory:
– hit = hiring a person who will be good at the job
– miss = not hiring someone who would do a good job
– false alarm = hiring someone who ends up being
unacceptable or doing a poor job
– correct rejection = not hiring someone who, in fact,
would not do a good job if they had been hired
Basics of Selection
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First a thorough job analysis is needed
Identify & prioritize KSAs
Find the applicants who have the KSAs or
have the ability to acquire them
Want a measure that is highly correlated
with ultimate job performance (i.e.,
criterion-related validity)
Selection Tests and
Procedures
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Selection errors can have serious negative
consequences for the company
– cost related to high turnover
– legal problems
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(e.g. adverse impact)
– low employee moral or resentment
– supervisors having to spend too much time on
documentation of problems
Commonly used Selection Test
and Procedures
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Measures of Cognitive Ability
– e.g. general ability, verbal ability, numerical ability,
perceptual speed, memory...
– used as valid predictors of job performance
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Measures of Physical Ability and
Psychomotor Skills
– e.g. static strength, dynamic strength, gross body
coordination, manual dexterity, stamina ...
– e.g. UPS worker
Commonly used Selection Test
and Procedures
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Personality Assessment
– clinical or personality dimensions
– e.g. MMPI
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Work Samples
– applicants complete a sample of work
necessary for successful job performance
– e.g. making a basket for an NBA player
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Structured Interviews
Future Trends in Human
Performance Intervention
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Accelerating turnover of knowledge
Rapid advances in information technology
An increasingly diverse work force
Increasing international business competition
Performance Support
Continuum of possible performance support
mechanisms for learning how to use software
Near to Task
Far From Task
User Reference
Classroom Online
Training Tutorial Guides Manuals
Help
Line
Online
Help
Product
Affordances
Training Program Design
Simplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model
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Phase I – Front-End Analysis
– Needs Assessment – to determine whether training is
the most appropriate method
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Organizational Analysis – determine where in the
organization is training required, and whether training will be
accepted by organization
Task Analysis – determine training objectives by examining
tasks necessary to perform job
Trainee (Person) Analysis – determine KSA’s of potential
trainees and who should receive training
– Functional Specifications – defines the training
objectives, performance requirements, and constraints
Training Program Design
Simplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model
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Phase II – Design and Development
– Generate Design Concepts
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Story-boarding, cost-benefit analysis
– Formative Evaluation
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Focuses on process and usability, provides feedback so
that design changes can be made prior to development
– Full-Scale Development
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Creating the medium to present the learning curriculum
Training Program Design
Simplified Instructional System Design (ISD) model
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Phase III – System Evaluation
– Develop Criteria – should be consistent with training objectives
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Levels of Criteria (Kirkpatrick) for summative evaluation
– Reaction – feedback from trainees as to whether they liked the
training
– Learning – test whether trainees learned the material
– Behavioral – determine whether training led to measurable changes in
performance on the job
– Results – utility of training or how much cost savings was derived
from implementing training
– Design Evaluation Program
– Collect/Analyze Data
– Modify training based on empirical data
Guidelines for Instructional
Development*
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Training Validity: Instructional events that comprise the training method
should be consistent with the cognitive, physical, or psychomotor
processes that lead to mastery
Active Learning: Learner should be induced to produce the capability
– e.g. practice behaviors, recall info from LTM, apply principles in doing task
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Feedback Delivery: All available sources of relevant feedback should be
used, & should be accurate, credible, timely, informative & constructive
Self-efficacy: Instructional processes should enhance trainee selfefficacy and expectations that the training will be successful and lead to
valued outcomes
Trainee Aptitude: Training methods should be adapted to differences in
trainee aptitudes and prior knowledge
*Adapted from research by Campbell
Training Media
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Click for bad
example of Audio
Air Force Training
Guide
Audio-Visual (AV) Material – videos, films, slide
presentations, used to present info multiple times
Advantages
• Can be captivating
• Can combine with lecture
• Training is consistent
• Inexpensive to deliver
• Can be dynamic
Disadvantages
• Not interactive
• No practice/feedback
• Difficult to update in some
modalities (e.g., video)
• High development cost
Training Media
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Example of CAI
Interactive Multi-Media – computer driven training system
using text, graphics, video, auditory information
– Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) / Computer-Based Training
(CBT)
Advantages
• Convenient delivery
• Highly interactive
• Engaging/motivating
• Provides testing/feedback
• Multimedia
Disadvantages
• Can be resource-intensive
to develop
• Requires multiple skills to
develop
• Some skills not amenable to
CAI/CBT
Training Media
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Simulation / Virtual Reality – imitation of the real environment
Advantages
Disadvantages
• Realistic practice
• Very costly to develop
• Replay/critique performance
• Difficult to develop
• Interactive, engaging,
• Costly to implement
dynamic, immersive
• Limited by current
• Safer than real environment
technology
• Event-based (trainer• Simulator/Cyber sickness
controlled)
Training Media and Strategy
Guidelines*
Link to decision aid for
selecting training media
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Simulation: effective for teaching many tasks and skills e.g.,
perceptual motor skills, conceptual tasks, and team functions
Computer-based instruction: provide capability to review
and branch and include skill diagnosis and remediation
Sound: provides helpful cues in instructional presentations
– these cues can be satisfied with relatively low fidelity but extremely high timely
executions
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Induce Motivation: Instruction should provide feedback
control of both stimulus and reinforcement variables
Reduce Cognitive Load: training features should limit the
number of stimuli (and extraneous stimuli) presented at any
one time to avoid requiring inordinate attention from students
*Guidelines are a subset adapted from Salvendy’s Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics
Transfer of Training
Transfer of Training – how well learning in one
environment, enhances performance in another.
Issues of training efficiency:
1. What provides best learning in shortest time?
2. What will lead to longest retention?
3. What is most cost effective?
%Transfer =
control time – transfer time
time savings
X 100 =
X 100
control time
control time
Training Effectiveness Ratio (TER) =
time savings
training time
Negative Transfer
Negative Transfer – learning in one environment interferes
with performance in the other.
• caused when one learns different response to same or
similar stimulus.
• old response competes with new response for same
stimulus.
• must unlearn old response
• ex: when switching from Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel software,
the spreadsheets look the same, but require different
commands for creating formulas and specifying cell
ranges.
Guidelines for Enhancing
Transfer
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Generalizability: Provide practice in a variety of stimulus situations so
that a student may generalize their knowledge
Transfer Goal: Use a rote or algorithmic approach if near transfer is
the goal of instruction
Visual Demonstrations: Training which incorporates visual
demonstrations provides positive transfer to real-world situations
Guided Training (training wheels): Gradually decrease the amount
of cues, prompts, and guides such that none (that would not be found
on the job) remain at the end of training
Functional vs. Physical fidelity: functional fidelity appears to be a
stronger influence in transferring knowledge from the learning
environment to the operational setting
Training System Fidelity
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Fidelity – realism of the training device
Physical Fidelity – how realistic training device appears
Functional Fidelity – how well device trains concepts
Fidelity Issues:
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Expense – more realism, greater cost
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Necessity – many tasks can be learned as well or better
by simplifying task in training (lowered fidelity)
3.
Negative transfer – if training environment is very close
to real environment, then things that are different may
lead to negative transfer.
Training Techniques
Overlearning - practice above & beyond that necessary
for errorless performance
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Increases resistance to extinction (improves retention)
Increases the ease of “re-learning”
Overlearning 
Decreases reaction time
May lead to automaticity
Performance
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Practice Trials
Training Techniques
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Embedded Training – controlled exercises called up and
worked on by trainees operating actual equipment (in
training mode)
– Provides employees opportunities to practice skills in a variety of
common situations to build automaticity
– Allows employees to practice skills relevant to situations that might
occur infrequently on the job (meltdown at nuclear power plant).
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Sometimes referred to as “stimulation” because rather than simulate
the equipment it injects signals (stimuli) into the actual equipment
Training Techniques
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Part-Task Training – learn individual
components of task separately, then join together
later (segmentation)
1. Identify task components that are NOT interdependent
2. Identify most important components
3. De-emphasize certain components
Ejector seat training is
only one part of
learning to fly
Training Techniques
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Guided Training (training
wheels) – prevents learner from
making catastrophic errors
– Avoids confusion in learning
complex tasks
– Don’t eliminate errors altogether
(they’re learning material), but
keep from making errors that
impair learning
Training Techniques
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Above Real-Time Training – practice trials that are
faster than would be experienced on the job
– Difficulty of practice assumed to make actual task seem
easier.
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Like swinging a weighted baseball bat in warm-ups then switching
to standard bat in the game
– Equivocal results in the research
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Violates other principles for enhancing transfer (“train as you fight”)
Top 5 Specific Instructional
Guidelines*
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Use Advance Organizers: At beginning of training, the material/media
should clearly inform the trainee of the learning objectives
Provide Knowledge of Results: During practice provide students with
immediate knowledge of results about correct and incorrect answers
Develop Mental Models: Emphasize distinctive features which can be
remembered in the form of mental pictures instead of abstract words
– e.g. diagrams, pictures, charts, acronyms
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Segment Training: Break down the overall learning task into manageable
steps or unit when any of the following conditions exist:
– lower ability students, complex material, & overall task composed of small parts
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Part-task / Whole-task Training: Provide learner practice on specific
components of the task for: a) simple task-practice in entirety, & b) complex
task-practice in parts and then in entirety
*Guidelines are a subset adapted from Salvendy’s Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics
Human Factors Application to
Athletic Training
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Demonstration of human factors research
tools (eye tracking) for improving
psychomotor performance (golf, basketball)
Click here for link to PBS program,
Scientific American Frontiers