Adaptive Thinking Training For Tactical Leaders

Abstract

SummaryThis paper reports a series of research efforts embodied in the U.S. Army's Think Like a Commander training program. The work is interesting because it seeks to train a cognitive behaviorthinking -using methods that have traditionally been applied to training more observable and measurable behaviors, e.g., marksmanship and gunnery, sports performance. In short, it does not greatly respect a traditional distinction between such things as physical movements, perceptions, and cognitions when it comes to training, rather treats these all as behaviors that are amenable to the same training methods and principles. Deliberate practice techniques were applied to develop exercises to train the task of adaptive thinking in tactical situations. The exercises were used in command preparation courses for U.S. Army officers at the brigade, battalion, and company levels. The approach shows promise and initial data indicate significant performance gains in a key component of battlefield adaptive thinking: the rapid analysis of battlefield situations to identify of key considerations for decision-making. Soviet Chess Training MethodsThe notion that thinking can be trained as a behavior has a precedent in practice. For decades, the Soviet chess machine thoroughly dominated all competition. Chessplayers around the world assumed the Soviets achieved their success solely by extra effort in selecting, developing, and supporting promising players. But did the Soviets have some new and secret training methods that the rest of the world did not? Few imagined that. With the breakup of the USSR, Soviet chess academies became publishing houses. The release of such books as Mark Dvoretsky's Secrets of Chess Training and Positional Play surprised the chess world. It seemed that the Soviets did have methods they hadn't revealed. Subsequently, English-speaking chess trainers have written manuals that applied the Soviet methods to selected aspects of the game, for example Andrew Soltis' book on how to calculate in chess, titled The Inner Game of Chess, presents training exercises to develop skill at visualizing future positions by moving pieces in one's imagination.Researchers at the U.S Army Research Institute (ARI) saw a parallel between the problem of training battlefield commanders to think adaptively in tactical situations and that of training chess grandmasters. They analyzed the Soviet training manuals to understand their methods. The difference between the Soviet methods and traditional chess instruction is, in a sense, the difference between education and training. The rest of the world studied the game of chess, its strategies and tactics, and tried to understand why one move was better than another. As students studied the game, they acquired knowledge about chess and understanding of its principles. They educated themselves about the game of chess. The Soviets did that as well, but also studied the human processes of finding good moves and avoiding errors, of searching and evaluating chess positions, and of controlling emotio...

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