LINEAR QUICKENING AS GUIDANCE IN TRAINING FOR MANUAL CONTROL OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS

An attempt was made to determine the effectiveness of linear quickening as guidance in training for manual unaided control of complex systems. The experimental task performed by all subjects was somewhat analogous to a submarine depth-changing maneuver to the extent that it represented changing the status of a complex system. To provide guidance to the experimental groups, the task system was quickened on some of the training trials. Five experimental groups of 10 subjects were used. These groups differed with respect to the number and position of quickened trials received during an eighteentrial training series. A sixth group of 10 subjects served as a control and received no quickened training trials. Following training, all groups were given 6 test trials on an unquickened system. Using time on target scores for the six test trials, it was found that 1 quickened training as guidance was not as effective as practice on the unquickened system itself, 2 the worst performance was exhibited by that group receiving quickened training only, and 3 performance was not significantly affected by the position in the training series in which quickening was introduced. Author