I am not advocating that squaring numbers etc is the answer to
developing skills of shifting attention *S* but that we can teach
students to learn how to develop their skill level by first using simple
exercises, moving towards more complex exercises.
Some training in human factors on such areas as information processing,
stress symptoms, management etc is l believe an important part of CRM.
- an individual who is aware of their own performance / psychological
limitations /reactions etc, interpersonal / group factors AND they are
able to practice these skills is likely to be more effective.
Reagards,
jo-Anne
Keith Hendy wrote:
>
> RE>Attention focus 4/16/98
>
> Well...be out of the office one day and look what happens. It seems I have
> had a greater contribution to the debate than when I'm here, thanks Doug.
>
> The IP/PCT model is a model of human information processing. From this model
> we argue that human performance is determined from the management of time,
> knowledge and attention. The attentional component determines which loops are
> being controlled in any time slice. Loops controlled are loops that learn
> (gaining SA). Decisions are based on our state of relevant knowledge. Being
> able to attend to many things requires us to time multiplex (i.e., shift
> attention from loop to loop). However, unless the loop has a really long time
> constant we can't switch attention until we see that the current goal has been
> achieved. So the simplest way to rapid goal achievement is to be really
> skilled (this means we have an highly representative mental model that
> resolves almost 100% of the error variance the first time around the loop).
> The better the knowledge is the less information has to be processed and the
> faster is goal achievement. This frees up the time line so more things can be
> attended to.
>
> I think people who are focusing on one thing are processing lots of
> information...until such time that they achieve the goal they set for
> themselves, they can't move on. Interestingly we have some experimental data
> that suggests that this is really what is happening in those who are bad at
> video type games (in this case Tetris). The really 'good' performers are fast
> serial processors with risky strategies. They are prepared to make lots of
> mistakes (but also score highly). The low performers seem intent on making
> the fewest mistakes but sacrifice throughput.
>
> So is this trainable. Absolutely. In the first instance become very good at
> the technical skills and learn satisficing strategies (don't control to 10'
> when 50' is good enough). But are there generic attention switching skills
> such as might be gained by mental arithmetic etc? I'm not convinced. Many
> years ago I had to average long columes of data. I chose to do this manually
> as the only calculators we had back then (don't go there :-) were mechanical.
> I became very good at it. I suspect that my speed came from not cross
> checking at the conscious level. I was just able to run down the column and
> get the right answer (I did check in the other direction). At the same time I
> was learning to fly for the first time (got to 30 hours, crashed the car, got
> married you know the story). 10 years later on, after my number adding skill
> had long since gone, I took up flying again (it came easier this time) and
> became qute a reasonable rally driver. I don't think my number adding skills
> where relevant to either activity.
>
> As I said to Doug in an email a week or so ago, I feel I achieved reasonable
> skill levels in aeroplanes, cars and racing boats (I can time share and do
> many things in a short period of time in these environments), but put me on a
> rock face, a black diamond ski hill, or in a failed parachute, and I will
> revert to single channel focused attention (because I don't have the knowledge
> to do these things at the skill based level, I would be back to Rasmussens
> rule and knowledge based behaviours). I suspect being able to compute the sum
> of squares wont help much either :-)
>
> Cheers
>
> Keith
>
> --------------------------------------
> Dick Jensen wrote.
>
> I've got a question for the group that has a different twist. I have heard,
> read, and taught my students that focus of attention is important in
> aviation. It was found to be the single best predictor of combat pilot
> performance in Israel (Gopher and Kahneman, 1971). Many are still using it
> in research using dichotic listening and visual tasks, as seen in the
> Symposium presentations. I think that it is at the heart of attitude
> management and judgment in civil aviation. Recently, I have been looking at
> the ag pilot safety problem and listening to them talk, focus of attention
> is one of their hardest tasks, especially when under fatigue or pressure
> from economic, personal, environmental, or business sources.
>
> Can someone tell me how to teach pilots to control or focus their attention?
> Also, can someone tell me how to test for attention control in a LOFT, LOS,
> or MOST scenario that is realistic to flight. I have challenged my students
> to this task but was wondering if any one out there can help us.
>
> By the way, all of the 9th Symposium proceedings (both hard copy and CD
> versions) have now been mailed to those who have paid for them. If you have
> not received yours, please let me know. Overseas people may need yet to wait
> some time for hard copies.
>
> Finally, mark your calendars for the 10th Symposium on Aviation Psychology
> -- May 2-7, 1999. The call for papers will go out in July this year.
>
> Dick Jensen
sw