ISSUE 34 : May/Jun - 1982 - Australian Defence Force Journal

30 Dtl-hNCL f-ORC'I lOL'RN'AL No. 34, Ma> Iune82
In general, high fidelity simulation is
required for effective transfer when the trainee
must leain to make difficult discriminations
between cues in the environment, and where
performance is either difficult or highly critical
to system operation'. Even so, research has
indicated that effective training can be as much
a function of the way in which the simulation
is used, as the actual level of fidelity employed".
Because of the obvious cost savings involved
in using low fidelity simulation, it should
always be considered. In the final analysis,
however, all simulation must be subjected to
evaluation for its effectiveness to be determined'.
TRAINING SETTINGS
In attempting to evaluate simulation, it is
necessary to consider the similarities and differences
among various training settings. Training
attempts to facilitate the acquisition and
retention of individual knowledge, skills and
attitudes, and collective skills. The goal of all
training should be to achieve success in war.
The crucial aspect in applying simulation to
this end is, therefore, to create conditions that
will provide effective transfer of training to
the operational situation.
Individual Knowledge and Skills
In this respect, the training of individual
knowledge, skills and attitudes may be thought
of as a succession of transfers to more and
more realistic scenarios, as the trainee progresses
from individual to collective training
settings. The most realistic setting, short of
actual combat, would be a two-sided free-play
exercise.
In this context, most training can be conceived
of as 'simulation' of one kind or
another, and individual and collective training
as part of a continuum. However, this continuum
can break down when, for whatever
reason, certain individually trained skills are
not transferred to the collective setting.
Small arms marksmanship is a good example
of this. For safety reasons, live ammunition
can be used with relative impunity during
individual training, but rarely so in a collective
setting. As a result, marksmanship skills never
really progress beyond the individual training
level and are not therefore subjected to the
environmental and psychological pressures that
exist in combat.
Although this problem is not easily solved,
simulation is one way of bridging the gap
between individual and collective training. In
the case of marksmanship, for example, use
of a laser-based tactical engagement simulation
system such as MILES (Multiple Integrated
Laser Engagement System) would be one way
of achieving more realistic collective training.
Collective Skills
Individual training is aimed at individual
skills, knowledge and attitudes. Collective
training, however, has at least two purposes:
a. practice and external validation of individually
trained knowledge and skills;
and
b. training, practice and evaluation of collective
skills.
To achieve these goals, simulation is used in
the collective setting to replicate both individual
and collective task demands.
Training should be subjected to external
validation, inter alia, to determine the effectiveness
with which knowledge and skills are
transferred from training to real-world or onthe-job
applications. Within Field Force Command,
individual and crew-trained knowledge
and skills would most appropriately be validated
during collective training. However, the
effectiveness with which knowledge and skills
transfer from the collective setting to the
operational situation remains largely academic.
Similarly, the simulation of collective task
demands provides a special problem for evaluation,
because, in the absence of combat, it
is difficult to demonstrate that effective transfer
occurs at all.
Two principles suggest a means of addressing
this problem:
a. collective training is itself a simulation of
combat; and
b. the higher the fidelity of simulation, the
more effective the transfer to the operational
situation is likely to be.
Higher fidelity of simulation in collective training
is therefore likely to contribute to more
accurate validation of individually trained
knowledge and skills, and potentially more
effective transfer of collective skills. For collective
training, simulators and simulative techniques
should be evaluated largely as means of
improving the simulation of combat, and
especially the environmental and psychological
demands of combat. The effective transfer of