“Being prepared for the infrequent”: A comparative study of two refresher training approaches and their effects on temporal and adaptive transfer in a process control task

Abstract

Operators working with highly automated technical systems face the challenge of skill retention due to few opportunities to apply the skills they acquired during initial training. Therefore, the use of refresher training is common in many high-risk environments. However, so far, the design and effectiveness of refresher training has not been focused on in training and human factors related research. We compared two refresher training approaches-practice and symbolic rehearsal-to a control group without refresher training. Fifty-nine engineering students were trained for one hour on a simulated process control task. A week later, the practice group completed four trials with the simulated task and the symbolic rehearsal group underwent four trials in written form. The final testing session took place two weeks after initial training. Refresher training was effective for temporal transfer, with the practice refresher group performing significantly better than the symbolic rehearsal group.

Factors Influencing Attenuating Skill Decay in High-Risk Industries: A Scoping Review

“…According to studies in [16,27], the decay of skills is influenced by task-related, method-related, and person-related variables, which are already relevant in an early phase of skill acquisition but might also influence later phases of skill transfer or retention. Task-related factors can be described by their complexity (e.g., the number of action steps required and dynamicity) [28], and also concern-for instance, the frequency of occurrence of the situation (e.g., temporal transfer) or the novelty of the situation (e.g., adaptive transfer) [29]. Method-related factors refer to the training design or learning environment, which can be modified and can reduce skill decay [17,23].…”

“…Another study, presented in [61], suggested that these tasks can be better retained due to components that are better proceduralized (e.g., knowledge elements are incorporated into a new knowledge structure), for instance, because they can be practiced more often in the work environment. Further, studies presented in [29,66,67] demonstrated that declarative knowledge-knowledge about facts and information-can be retained well. Additionally, tasks that were highly organized, meaningful, and consistent across situations, and tasks that did not need to be accurately performed, deteriorated less [16,34,55,68,69].…”

“…One way to attenuate skill decay is through refresher interventions. The objective of refresher interventions is the re-establishment of a specific skill level that was acquired during the initial training but has not been practiced for a long period of time [29]. Highrisk industries that have to deal with highly automated environments counter skill decay with periodic refresher interventions/recurrent trainings, which are declared mandatory in some industries (including aviation-see, e.g., [30]; nuclear power plants-see, e.g., [31]; maritime; see, e.g., [32]) but not in others.…”

“…[16,17] Refresher intervention: Refresher interventions refer to all measures used to prevent skill decay in high-risk domains. [29] High-risk industry: High-risk industries are characterized by their dealing with challenging, disruptive events on a regular basis and the potential for dangerous situations. Examples of high-risk industries included, but were not limited to, the transport industry (e.g., aviation, shipping, rail transport), military, process industry (e.g., energy production), production industry (e.g., chemicals, pharmaceuticals), and medicine.…”

Complex cognitive skill retention: The roles of general mental ability and refresher interventions in a simulated vocational setting

“…sequences (Kluge et al, 2012;Kluge & Frank, 2014). Performing the procedure correctly and in a timely manner leads to a production outcome of a minimum of 1,000 L of purified wastewater.…”