Learning Principles in Training Design

Skills (Skill-based Outcomes)

Also include declarative knowledge Gradually manifest as procedural knowledge (motor/technical skills) Ex. Flying an aircraft, navigating a software program, customer service Application of concepts and rules (involved in sales or management skills) Requires practice, may be evaluated through simulations

Advantages of over-learning

Enough practice to establish "automaticity" e.g., much of driving is automatized Overlearning is critical in jobs where errors kill people Ex., pilots, military operations Research indicates overlearning enhances retention

Feedback Contiguity (timeliness)

Feedback is most effective when received immediately after the corresponding behavior occurs High contiguity allows the learner to know exactly what behavior the feedback pertains to and know the context in which the behavior was performed correctly or incorrectly Feedback received much later than the performance is more difficult to appreciate in context Episodic memory of the performance decays over time so is it more difficult to encode the feedback in relation to the details of that performance and then less likely to be retrieved in similar situations in the future It also allows reinforcement learning to occur Positive feedback may elicit positive emotions that reinforce correct behaviors Negative feedback may elicit negative emotions that reduce incorrect behavior

Open Skills

Involve responding to unpredictable situations Require more calibration and discretion There is not a single, correct way to apply the skill These skills are more difficult to transfer than closed skills

Training Design

Learning/Transfer Principles Practice Conditions

Failure to maintain training knowledge or skills may be due to

Loss of skills likely if skills are infrequently used Forgetting Loss of motivation

Practice Conditions

Massed vs. distributed practice Whole vs. part learning Feedback Overlearning

Various Conditions of Practice

Massed vs. distributed practice Whole vs. part learning Feedback Overlearning

Identical Elements

Proposed by Thorndike and Woodworth (1901) Based on principles of operant conditioning: Behavior is learned from the consequences that follow it (i.e., a reinforcer or punisher) Assumes we learn to perform tasks by learning stimulus-response chains Transfer is enhanced to the degree that there are identical stimulus and response elements in the training and transfer settings Training designs informed by this theory seek to maximize fidelity...

Maintenance

Refers to the extent to which knowledge/skills learned in training are engaged on an ongoing basis over time

Generalization

Refers to the extent to which knowledge/skills learned in training context are utilized in dissimilar performance contexts Difficult to measure in org settings because generalization often occurs in idiosyncratic ways That is, employees generalize training skills when confronted with a situation that is uncommon So, not all employees can be evaluated on generalization with that specific task

Types of Transfer Maintenance Curves Type A

Resembles a slow decay of skills Suggests a refresher course may be necessary

Closed Skills

Skills that are to be identically produced by the trainee on their job They are executed the same way in the training context as they are on the job Ex., product assembly, machine operation

Part learning

Subcomponents of the tasks (i.e., skills) are learned independently Good for complex tasks that have highly differentiated subcomponents Skills required to land an airplane, play a musical instrument, conduct research. may have low fidelity

Feedback Ego involvement

Technically a characteristic of a performer When ego-involved performers receive frequent positive feedback, they may paradoxically engage in self-handicapping behavior (especially when low in self-efficacy) Most commonly, this occurs through a withdrawal of effort This protects self-esteem (i.e., ego) because failure may be attributed to a lack of effort while success may be attributed to ability When ego involved performers receive negative feedback, they may find it threatening to their self-esteem Consequently, this may deter trainees from exercising the news skills in order to avoid the potential for subsequent failure However, it may also motivate the trainee to save face through corrective action

Fidelity

The extent to which training tasks correspond to on-the-job tasks For example, ethical dilemmas or conflict management scenarios may vary in the extent to which they are relevant to the org environment

May be driven by the execution of training skills yielding desirable outcomes This enhances the perceived instrumentality of the training skills Which enhances motivation to transfer over time Ex., positive reactions by subordinates to leadership techniques learned in a leadership training program may enhance perceptions of instrumentality

This is Ideal

Feedback Sign or valence

This refers to whether the feedback is positive or negative People make suppositions when acquiring knowledge People form hypotheses about how their behaviors elicit outcomes when acquiring a skill Positive feedback confirms accurate suppositions and supports correct hypotheses Negative feedback disconfirms inaccurate suppositions and falsifies incorrect hypotheses Due to reasons previously noted, positive feedback may be more effective at early stages of learning while negative feedback may be more effective at later stages of learning

Feedback Critical factors Frequency

Too little frequency not enough guidance Too much frequency too much information (TMI!) which raises task complexity And thus could detract from performance and learning

Far Transfer =

Transfer of learning from one situation to another, dissimilar situation Far transfer requires a more complex training design Ex., customer service principles learned in a lecture format transferred to an interaction with an angry customer in front of a long line of customers at a cash register

Near transfer =

Transfer of learning from one situation to another, similar situation

Indicates that the failure to maintain was caused by a failure to generalize Skills were acquired but not used on the job Suggests that maintenance may be improved by designing training to enhance generalization

Type B

Suggests an initial attempt was made to transfer Evidence for "motivation to transfer" But, motivation to transfer ultimately declined Could be due to lack of support, or Lack of success - recall the role of "instrumentality" in motivation to transfer The effective execution of skills doesn't guarantee that desired outcomes will follow Ex., effective execution of sales skills may not result in new sales

Type C

Similar to Type A, but The gap between pre and post training is much smaller Hence, the decline in skills occurs much faster This underscores the importance of taking individual's post training level into consideration The problem in this case is only partially one of transfer The lack of learning might also be an issue

Type D

Feedback Critical factors Specificity

Vague feedback is difficult to know how to remedy behaviorally Therefore, behavior-specific feedback is ideal Obviously however, feedback can be TOO specific This is mostly because more specificity tends to require more feedback overall Too much feedback is difficult to process because can detract from performance and learning (by overloading the trainee with task complexity)

Massed Practice

continuous practice w/out rest

Whole learning

entire task is learned at once May be useful after successful part learning has taken place Best for simple tasks that have tightly interrelated subcomponents Taking orders as a server at a restaurant, making a salad Advantageous when cognitive ability is high, practices distributed rather than massed, and the training material is high in task organization but low in task complexity

Stimulus Variability

is the notion that transfer is maximized when a variety of relevant training stimuli are employed The idea is that several examples of a concept to be learned strengthens the trainees understanding so that he/she is more likely to see the applicability of the concept in a new situation

Generalization is good when

knowledge/skills acquired during training are appropriately applied

generalization is bad when

knowledge/skills acquired during training are inappropriately applied That is, it's bad when employees execute skills or recall information correctly but use it at the wrong time or in the wrong context

Distributed Practice

practice broken into multiple sessions over time Results in more efficient learning/retention Training for difficult/complex tasks results in higher performance when multiple massed practice sessions are given first followed by prefer sessions with more frequent rests intervals These findings raise the issue of whether or not to divide training into sessions

How can we Promote Transfer Closed Skills

provide detailed checklists to follow provide high-fidelity practice reward compliance

Feedback Over-learning

refers to the process of providing trainees with continued practice far beyond the point when the task has been performed successfully Presumably, a single performance w/out errors could be an accident

Learning outcomes

should be selected based on their relevance to performance

How can we Promote Transfer Open Skills

teach general principles High-fidelity practice is less feasible Encourage experimentation Provide lots of examples

Teaching through general principles maintains

that transfer is facilitated when trainees are taught, not just applicable skills, but also the general principles that underlie those skills Ex., The transfer of managerial skills may be enhanced by teaching general problem solving skills or decision-making strategies ...

Affective Outcomes

Attitudes, beliefs, values (e.g., socialization training) E.g., Organizational commitment, diversity appreciation May be evaluated through attitude surveys

Knowledge (Cognitive Outcomes)

Declarative knowledge (facts) specialized knowledge, including names, labels, facts, and bodies of knowledge Ex. Police officers acquire knowledge about laws Requires information rehearsal, may be evaluated with tests

Feedback Stage of learning

Highly specific and frequent feedback can be overwhelming early in skill acquisition During the early stages of skill acquisition, learners have an abundance of things to focus on They have an abundance of self-generated feedback They make mistakes not because they don't know any better But because they haven't become familiar enough with the skill to execute it automatically without errors Hence, giving highly specific, frequent feedback to learners early in the skill acquisition process may overload them with information (and make the task overly complex)

Learning/Transfer Principles

Identical Elements Teaching through General Principles Stimulus Variability

Ex., sales skills are very context dependent

Negotiation skills must not be performed prematurely (before customer values product) Presentation of a particular product should not be performed before assessing buying motives Value building should be less emphasized with referrals