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We studied how successfully students could use examples and procedures to construct equations for work problems. According to the proposed theory, the procedures indicate how to generate values that differ in structure from the example. The fLrst experiment compared 3 groups of students who received a simple example, a set of procedures, or both. A mathematical model with 3 parameters (the probability of generating a correct value by matching the example, following a procedure, or using general knowledge) accounted for 94% of the variance for how the 3 instructional groups performed over 4 levels of transformation. A second experiment extended the predictions of the model to include either a complex example, a complex example and procedures, or a complex example and a simple example. Two alternative approaches for instructing people about a task are to present either a detailed example or a set of procedures. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of an example is that it illustrates how the procedures are applied to a particular situation. For example, students in a college algebra class could be given a detailed solution to the following problem: Ann can type a manuscript in 10 hr, and Florence can type it in 5 hr. How long will it take them if they both work together?. The disadvantage of an example is that it may not be very helpful for solving problems that are slightly different. Students often have difficulty in solving variations of the exampies, such as a problem in which one person worked more hours than the other (Reed, Dempster, & Ettinger, 1985). The advantage of procedures or rules is that they can specify the component steps for solving a variety of problems. One rule might specify what to do when one person works longer than another, and another rule might specify what to do when rate rather than time is the unknown. The disadvantage of procedures is that they can be rather abstract and isolated, resulting in minimal understanding of the task as a whole. Thus learning to operate a device can be facilitated if a set of procedures is supplemented with additional material (functional, structural, or diagrammatic information) that enables students to better understand and integrate the procedures

This study experimentally tested the use of shared mental models and shared displays as a means of enhancing team situation awareness (SA). Teams were tested using a simulation that incorporated features of a distributed team architecture. As hypothesized, the presence of shared displays and shared mental models improved team performance. However, the mechanism whereby the shared displays aided performance was not direct as expected. Teams were slower when given a shared display initially. After the shared display was removed, performance exceeded all other conditions, however. The combination of non-shared displays and no mental model was highly detrimental to performance. Teams who experienced this condition first were unable to ever develop very good performance. Overall, we found that effective team performance could be enhanced by providing teams with sufficient information to build a shared mental model of each other's tasks and goals, either through direct instruction, or through provision of shared displays. It is believed that the shared displays helped to build shared mental models which boosted later task performance.

In order to improve our understanding of situation awareness (SA) in teams performing in technologically advanced command, control, and communications (C3) operations, researchers need to develop valid approaches to assess both individual and shared SA. We investigated SA in an interdisciplinary military rescue operation training exercise. For this study, we developed procedures to measure the degree of shared SA between two team members and to improve the accuracy of their shared SA scores. We suggest that SA scores that are calculated using many existing methods may be inflated because they often fail to account for error in terms of both the amount of information that is thought to be relevant and in the accuracy of a person's knowledge of it. We calculated true SA scores that account for both of these types of error. The measures were then used to evaluate five potential predictors of shared SA. Our analysis suggested that failure to compensate for error in SA may lead to overestimation of performance in a situation. The results also revealed a significant relationship between shared SA and participants' distance from a central, joint service team, which acted as the organizational hub within the C3 structure. Shared SA was better the further away from the hub people were, which suggests that a person's role and position within an organization affects the level of shared SA that can be achieved with other individuals. Downloaded from Haydee M. Cuevas is a research associate with SA Technologies. Her recent research has focused on training and system design to support team cognitive and metacognitive processes related to both human-human and human-agent group dynamics across pre-, in-, and postprocess interactions in distributed military teams.

Age differences in the types of processing associated with impression change were examined. Young, middle-aged, and older adults formed an impression of a target based on a short vignette that described either positive or negative characteristics in 1 of 2 domains (ability vs. morality). Impression change was examined after presentation of additional behavioral information that was inconsistent with the original vignette. Replicating previous findings, younger adults changed their impressions in response to the consistency of the new information with the initial target description. In contrast, impression change in the 2 older groups was based on the trait diagnosticity of the original and new information, suggesting greater use of inferential, knowledge-based processing with age. The results indicate that qualitative differences exist in impression change processes, with different-aged individuals considering different types of information when constructing and updating social representations.