"Soldiers in the 21st century must possess the knowledge, skills, and other attributes to perform effectively in complex technical, information-rich environments. This study, Development of a Prototype Self-Assessment Program in Support of Soldier Competency Assessment, was conducted as a counterpart to the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences' (ARI) Performance Measures for 21st Century Soldier Assessment (PerformM21). PerformM21 is a 3-year feasibility effort to identify viable approaches for an operational performance assessment system for Army enlisted personnel. In this study, the researchers identified the design and content of a self-assessment system (SAS) that would (a) help Soldiers feel confident about testing, (b) inform Soldiers about the junior noncommissioned officer (NCO) promotion system, and (c) familiarize Soldiers with the duties and responsibilities of NCOs. Information about best practices in the field of self-assessment/test preparation including what is done in the other Armed Services, academia, and the test industry was used to develop a prototype SAS that would explore the realm of test preparation functions, actions, and items that a typical Soldier would encounter during this phase. The prototype SAS reflects PerformM21 test parameters; it is web-based, targeted to E4 Soldiers, and focuses on the Army-wide core assessment."--P. i.

"The PerformM21 research project addressed the Army's need to adapt to the requirements of operations in the 21st century. The Incorporating Lessons Learned into the Army Competency Assessment Prototype (Lessons Learned) analyses is a subpart of the PerformM21 work and is discussed in this report. Specifically, Lessons Learned is concerned with incorporating tasks and knowledges that emerged from recent deployments into the standard Army-wide Common Tasks hierarchy. To this end, a prototype job analysis survey and test blueprint were developed, resulting in a process that is transportable to an operational program. Lessons learned sources were located, and challenges noted with them were discussed (e.g., locating Army-approved doctrine). Finally, new items were developed based on this lessons learned content. These items, with further review and modification, could be used in an operational assessment."--P. i.

"In the early 1990s, the Department of the Army abandoned its Skill Qualification Test (SOT) program due primarily to maintenance, development, and administration costs. This left a void in the Army's capabilities for assessing job performance qualification. To meet this need, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) instituted a 3-year program of feasibility research related to the development of a Soldier assessment system that is both effective and affordable. The PerformM21 program has two mutually supporting tracks. The first focuses on the design of a testing program and identification of issues related to its implementation. The second track is a demonstration of concept - starting with a prototype core assessment targeted to all Soldiers eligible for promotion to Sergeant, followed by job-specific prototype assessments for several Military Occupational Specialties (MOS). The prototype assessments were developed during the first 2 years of the research program. The present report describes work conducted in the final year of the PerformM21 program, in which five prototype MOS-specific assessments (along with the common core examination) were pilot tested on a sample of specialists/corporals."--Stinet.

"The purpose of this document is to describe the work that ARI will accomplish in its fiscal year ... program"--P.2 of cover.

Includes a foreword by Major General David A. Rubenstein. From the editor: "71F, or "71 Foxtrot," is the AOC (area of concentration) code assigned by the U.S. Army to the specialty of Research Psychology. Qualifying as an Army research psychologist requires, first of all, a Ph.D. from a research (not clinical) intensive graduate psychology program. Due to their advanced education, research psychologists receive a direct commission as Army officers in the Medical Service Corps at the rank of captain. In terms of numbers, the 71F AOC is a small one, with only 25 to 30 officers serving in any given year. However, the 71F impact is much bigger than this small cadre suggests. Army research psychologists apply their extensive training and expertise in the science of psychology and social behavior toward understanding, preserving, and enhancing the health, well being, morale, and performance of Soldiers and military families. As is clear throughout the pages of this book, they do this in many ways and in many areas, but always with a scientific approach. This is the 71F advantage: applying the science of psychology to understand the human dimension, and developing programs, policies, and products to benefit the person in military operations. This book grew out of the April 2008 biennial conference of U.S. Army Research Psychologists, held in Bethesda, Maryland. This meeting was to be my last as Consultant to the Surgeon General for Research Psychology, and I thought it would be a good idea to publish proceedings, which had not been done before. As Consultant, I'd often wished for such a document to help explain to people what it is that Army Research Psychologists "do for a living." In addition to our core group of 71Fs, at the Bethesda 2008 meeting we had several brand-new members, and a number of distinguished retirees, the "grey-beards" of the 71F clan. Together with longtime 71F colleagues Ross Pastel and Mark Vaitkus, I also saw an unusual opportunity to capture some of the history of the Army Research Psychology specialty while providing a representative sample of current 71F research and activities. It seemed to us especially important to do this at a time when the operational demands on the Army and the total force were reaching unprecedented levels, with no sign of easing, and with the Army in turn relying more heavily on research psychology to inform its programs for protecting the health, well being, and performance of Soldiers and their families."