This should become a fixture in trainers’ toolbox of ways to improve operator performance
Dr. Gary Klein and Joseph Borders of ShadowBox LLC developed the Cognitive After Action Review Guide for Observers, “CAARGO”. The guide was developed to assist trainers to understand their trainees’ mental models, help them discover how they arrived at their decisions and understand any errors. The guide was tested during White board sessions, Simulator training and Tabletop exercises. This was a continuation of the Mental model project. The project resulted in a nine-page guide, a one-page summary sheet and a wallet card with highlights. The production of a CAARGO video has been approved for 2019.
For this project MacroCognition will develop, user-test and document cognitively inspired train the trainer exercises. The integrated guide that not only describe the common cognitive barriers to trainees, but also develops perspective-taking skills and cognitive curiosity for the trainers, which are critical for revealing and reconstructing trainees’ flawed mental models. These are exercises designed to teach trainers how they can uncover their trainee’s mental models (i.e., how someone understands a system or process) and better articulate their own tacit knowledge.
In MacroCognition’s pilot effort, their primary contribution was developing a process-driven account of functional mental models. They used a naturalistic knowledge elicitation method to decode each operator’s mental model of the system based on their troubleshooting approach. Rather than capturing a static version of each operator’s mental model, this account emphasized how the operators used their mental models and highlighted how their mental models influenced their sensemaking and decision making throughout the scenario exercises. As a result, MacroCognition observed and recorded a number of problems and traps that operators fall into. The purpose of this current effort is to leverage these findings and teach this approach to trainers and experienced operators tasked with on-the-job training.
MacroCognition LLC will provide the following project deliverables:
1. CAARGO document for trainers and supervisors
2. Descriptions of the training exercises, including scenarios and the types of decision prompts that we create in collaboration with the process company
3. Written report of the project, which includes evaluation of CAARGO based on user feedback and trainer observations