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....-Vita ....-Papers ....-Landmine
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Jim
Staszewski’s research focuses on analyzing the cognitive mechanisms underlying
experts’ extraordinary proficiency and applying the findings to help learners
increase their proficiency. Three questions drive the research: (1) What
knowledge and strategies produce exemplary human performance? (2) What
underlying mechanisms build proficiency, and how do they do so? (3) How
can a detailed understanding of expertise and its acquisition guide the
design of instruction capable of facilitating novices’ skill development?
Recent and ongoing projects address all three questions through a single research strategy: performing information-processing analyses of expertise and using the findings as blueprints for instructional design and for assessment of the effects of the instruction. The research fits neither the usual conception of applied research nor of theoretical research; instead, it fits the category of “use-inspired research,” described in Stokes’ (1997) book, Pasteur’s Quadrant. Use-inspired research is simultaneously theoretically informative and practically important. It often arises in domains such as the ones studied in this research program, in which detailed theoretical analyses are needed before crucial practical challenges can be met, and the data that arise from evaluations of the practical applications provide valuable feedback for improving the theoretical analyses. This approach has characterized Staszewski’s projects on landmine detection, intelligence analysis, and medical instruction. Consistent with Simon’s (1990) tenet that understanding complex human cognition demands a detailed understanding of the task environments to which experts have adapted – and to which novices must adapt to gain proficiency -- studies of both experts who already are highly proficient and novices who are in the process of becoming proficient are carried out in field settings, such as Army training/testing sites. The fact that the programs developed to train land mine detection skills have been adopted force-wide by the U. S. Army attests to the practical utility of the research and the body of principles, theory, and methods basic researchers have developed to understand human expertise. Simon,
H. A. (1990). Invariants of human behavior. Annual review of psychology,
14, 1-19.
Current Projects: • Retention
of Landmine Detection Skill
Impact:
Training
programs for AN/PSS-12 and AN/PSS-14 operators based on models of
Recommendations
for revision of US Army Engineer School’s (USAES) PSS-14 operator
Updated 3/10/06 JS/tc
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