Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
order to cognitively translate the information received to the actions that must be undertaken
at that step, meanwhile using
direct aids
, the information is explicit that the cognitive load is
almost null.
The
use of direct aids
is attractive for both trainers and trainees since they are easy to implement
and they provide useful information to perform the task in an easy way. However, some
research works such as Yuviler-Gavish et al. (Yuviler-Gavish et al. (2011)) suggest that the use
of direct aids can have adverse effects on training since they prevent trainees from actively
exploring the task. In addition, trainees can create dependences with the training system that
impede the skills transfer in the real situation when these aids are no longer available. In this
way, it would be useful to define
a strategy to provide direct aids that maintains the benefits
of these aids but eliminates their negative effects.
This chapter analyzes the
hypothesis
that if
direct aids are provided in a controlled way
during the training process, then
the transfer of knowledge will not be hindered.
This
chapter describes the test conducted to compare the performances obtained with a training
strategy based on controlled direct aids with a training strategy based on indirect aids.
This chapter is organized as follows. The rest of this section provides a brief introduction to
theoretical concepts about procedural tasks and its learning. The section 2 describes the use
of virtual reality technologies for training focusing mainly on multimodal systems and the
section 3 presents a new Multimodal Training System for leaning assembly and disassembly
procedural tasks. Section 4 describes the results of an experiment conducted to analyze the
use of direct aids to train a procedural task. Lastly, section 5 provides the conclusions derived
from this chapter and propose some future research challenges.
1.1 What is a procedural task
A
procedural task
involves the execution of an ordered sequence of operations/steps that need
to be carried out to achieve a specific goal. In other words, this kind of activities require
following a procedure and they are usually evaluated by the speed and accuracy of their
performance. There are two main types of skills (abilities) that may be involved in each step:
1. Physical skill, called here
motor skill
, which entails the execution of physical movements,
like unscrewing a nut.
2. Mental skill, called here
cognitive skill
, which entails the knowledge about how the task
should be performed, like knowing what nut should be unscrewed in each step.
The cognitive skill has an important role in the process of learning a procedural task, it reflects
the ability of the humans to
obtain a good mental representation of task organization,
and to knows
what
appropriate actions should be done,
when
to do them (appropriate time) and
how
to do
them (appropriate method).
1.2 Learning of procedural tasks
From a dictionary, one can identify two primary meanings for the word learning. The
first definition is the
active process
of acquiring information, knowledge, procedures and
capabilities for performing operations and achieving goals to satisfy the requirements of
a given task. The second one is
knowledge or ability
that is acquired by instruction or
study. During the learning process, the learner selects and transforms information, constructs
hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure (e.g. schemas and mental
models) using their past/current knowledge and experiences (Dale (1969)).
