Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

Dr. Mayo sees the interface or interaction between researchers and
trainers to be the most critical problem. here he recognizes that the
continuity from X&D to translation to change in training can be accomplished
only by appropriate interaction in which researchers and their
managers take the responsibility for the translation process and assist
the training personnel in the a:tion process to the point where a;;rcpriate
inplcncntation,has been accomplished.
Mr. McDowell's presentation is a natural follow-on to Dr. b!ayo's.
He perceives the requirement for proposing resea..-. m-5 as a soul searching
responsibility for use of the taxpayer's dollar invokring the questlor.s
of benefits gained from Fast !?'.tD and projected yield of future ?.i-3. he
, perceives ttle t~'a::,ers' and maxt~cr~ :-ales as not limited to ;r-!nslatlon,
but a process 3f bridging the ~au j . t;etween cznCi:c +i of research and im?lementation.
This process: is continuous according io Xr. NcDowell and
2equires constant interacrion between researcher and trainer free problem
identification,
implementation.
XE.? planning, conduct cf X&D through translation and
Mr. McDowell is not so prone as Dr. Xayo to perceive a vast graveyard
of unused i%D. He qualifies his remarks in a way which implies
that the Army may not suffer the "missing link" biimna to the extent
that the iiavy does.
Where Dr. ?-!ayo exhorts the need for trainer---csearchar interaction,
. .
Mr. McDowell talks of a system 11: beIn&. He refers to interacticn that
"takes place;" data whic!i are "provided to the trainer;" reports which
are' "reviewed and staffed with appropriate elements of the organizstion;"
and specific examples of frcq.uent and essential in-olvenent of the rcsearch
team in "active participation." He percc2vzs iise of F.&D byproducts
as increasing, and dissemination of FLD findings among FotentiLl
users as essential.
In closing, Rr. McDowell excerpts from Dr. ?!cClelland's 1967 report
eight characteristics of unsuccessful research efforts and five characteristics
of successful research efforts.
The final presentation by Dr. Norman Kerr is a shocker. in some
communltics it might even seen blasphemous. However, in the long course
of the history of education, the history of training and the history of
tralnlng
. .a
OCD, A\v Dr. Kerr's remarks spark a flame of truth--albeit a truth
so mixed wit!1 exception, complication and dark shadow that its exnlication
is no slnplc'matter.
Dr. Kerr's paper rtatas what the other pa?ers only imply. The
problem may not be a missing link but a faulty chain anchored insecurely
and subject to vectors of power and stress that make the task
of translating and a??lying SD results in a positive manner unduly
dil'ficult . cm.
even ic~ossible.
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