Job Corps Occupational Training Program.

"Occupational training handbook, JCH 400-15.2."

Final report on Occupational Training Center for the Hard-Core Unemployed at Baltimore, Maryland /

"WLC file no. 1.F.1"

An examination of learning processes during critical incident training: Implications for the development of adaptable trainees

Three experiments are reported that examined the process by which trainees learn decision-making skills during a critical incident training program. Formal theories of category learning were used to identify two processes that may be responsible for the acquisition of decision-making skills: rule learning and exemplar learning. Experiments I and 2 used the process dissociation procedure (L. L. Jacoby, 1998) to evaluate the contribution of these processes to performance. The results suggest that trainees used a mixture of rule and exemplar learning. Furthermore, these learning processes were influenced by different aspects of training structure and design. The goal of Experiment 3 was to develop training techniques that enable trainees to use a rule adaptively. Trainees were tested on cases that represented exceptions to the rule. Unexpectedly, the results suggest that providing general instruction regarding the kinds of conditions in which a decision rule does not apply caused them to fixate on the specific conditions mentioned and impaired their ability to identify other conditions in which the rule might not apply. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Functional assessment and care of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities

Objectives: To determine the relationship between pediatric assessment scores and ratings by parents and teachers regarding the amount of assistance required to complete basic activities of daily living; and to examine the relationship among scores for three commonly used pediatric assessments. Design: Prospective correlational study. 205 children with developmental disabilities. The children ranged in age from 11 to 87 mo and included 72 females and 133 males of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The children were evaluated by using the Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM(TM) instrument), and the Amount of Assistance Questionnaire, Results: The test-retest reliability coefficients for items on the Amount of Assistance Questionnaire were found to range from 0.82 to 0.97. Correlations among subscale scores and amount of assistance ratings were highest for the WeeFIM instrument and Battelle Developmental Inventory Screening Test. The highest correlation was between WeeFIM total rating and total amount of assistance rating (r = 0.91). Conclusion: Total WeeFIM instrument ratings and severity of disability were the best predictors of amount of assistance ratings provided by parents and teachers.

Using "war stories" to train for adaptive performance: Is it better to learn from error or success?

The study examines whether error exposure training can enhance adaptive performance. Fifty-nine experienced fire-fighters undergoing training for incident command participated in the study. War stories were developed based on real events to illustrate successful and unsuccessful incident command decisions. Two training methodologies were compared and evaluated. One group was trained using case studies that depicted incidents containing errors of management with severe consequences in fire-fighting outcomes (error-story training) while a second group was exposed to the same set of case studies except that the case studies depicted the incidents being managed without errors and their consequences (errorless-story training). The results provide some support for the hypothesis that it is better to learn from other people's errors than from their successes. Implications for training are discussed.