"The U.S. Army Force 21 program makes extensive use of digital communications technologies to speed the exchange of information among all operational levels. While digital communications offers great potential, anecdotal reports from field trials and testing repeatedly state that the basic procedural skills needed to operate these systems are highly perishable. The present research developed estimates of digital procedural skill retention for the tasks of creating and sending digital map overlays and reports, using the M1A2 Abrams tank Inter-Vehicular Information System. Twenty-eight soldiers received instruction based on the M1A2 New Equipment Training Team lesson plan, followed by an immediate evaluation of task performance, and a follow-on evaluation 30 days later. Results showed a 52 percent reduction in the number of soldiers able to create and send digital map overlays alter the 30 day delay, and a 23 percent reduction in the number able to create and send digital reports. Methods for measuring skill decay are presented, and an approach to identify performance errors is provided."--DTIC.

"The U.S. Army Force 21 program makes extensive use of digital communications technologies to speed the exchange of information among all operational levels. While digital communications offers great potential, anecdotal reports from field trials and testing repeatedly state that the basic procedural skills needed to operate these systems are highly perishable. The present research developed estimates of digital procedural skill retention for the tasks of creating and sending digital map overlays and reports, using the M1A2 Abrams tank Inter-Vehicular Information System. Twenty-eight soldiers received instruction based on the M1A2 New Equipment Training Team lesson plan, followed by an immediate evaluation of task performance, and a follow-on evaluation 30 days later. Results showed a 52 percent reduction in the number of soldiers able to create and send digital map overlays alter the 30 day delay, and a 23 percent reduction in the number able to create and send digital reports. Methods for measuring skill decay are presented, and an approach to identify performance errors is provided."--DTIC.

The U.S. Army Force 21 program makes extensive use of digital communications technologies to speed the exchange of information among all operational levels. While digital communications offers great potential, anecdotal reports from field trials and testing repeatedly state that the basic procedural skills needed to operate these systems are highly perishable. The present research developed estimates of digital procedural skill retention for the tasks of creating and sending digital map overlays and reports, using the M1A2 Abrams tank Inter-Vehicular Information System. Twenty-eight soldiers received instruction based on the M1A2 New Equipment Training Team lesson plan, followed by an immediate evaluation of task performance, and a follow-on evaluation 30 days later. Results showed a 52 percent reduction in the number of soldiers able to create and send digital map overlays alter the 30 day delay, and a 23 percent reduction in the number able to create and send digital reports. Methods for measuring skill decay are presented, and an approach to identify performance errors is provided.

Army commanders have insufficient time to train on every mission requirement and organizational standard. Mission essential task lists help to scope training requirements based on current performance. However, there presently is no way for unit trainers to systematically schedule their training based on expected performance. The ability to project training status outward, beyond current performance levels, would enhance decisions about scheduling training. The ARI has previously investigated skill retention in order to develop such a capability. Changes in the operational environment and in the theoretical understanding of human performance have created opportunities to advance ARI's research program and have necessitated that these advances be made to assist the warfighter. Our research assessed the implications of the contemporary operational environment for maintaining skilled performance in light of a host of theoretical factors thought to influence skill decay. We implemented our findings in a survey-based instrument to be used for rating individual and collective tasks on several of these retention factors. This paper describes the survey-based instrument, its development, and initial evaluation. In future work, task ratings assigned using this instrument will be compared to actual performance data in order to build and validate a quantitative model of individual and collective skill retention.

"As the Army transitions to modern digital technology it faces a major challenge in designing computer-implemented training to support the acquisition, retention, and transfer of skills required to operate these systems. This report describes principles of cognitive psychology and related training techniques that can be incorporated into the design of computer-implemented training. While modern computers and the Internet offer technically advanced capabilities, the training potential of these systems comes from their ability to vary instructional methods and media systematically according to the cognitive demands of the tasks to be trained. The research described in this report builds on previous ARI skill retention research accomplished with the Army's Inter- Vehicular Information System (IVIS), where it was noted that a number of cognitive psychology principles might be applied to modify training to enhance skill retention. The products of this research are a set of cognitive psychology principles and related training techniques summarized in tabular form, and an outline for a training program structure. Examples of prototype training materials demonstrating the implementation of the cognitive training techniques are provided."--Stinet.