Leveraging Embedded Training Systems to Build Higher Level Cognitive Skills in Warfighters

Embedded Training Systems provide a new opportunity for training not only procedural or systems skills, but also the higher-level cognitive skills that are critical for successful performance on today’s battlefield. We have developed a principled approach for training the essential cognitive skills underlying high levels of situation awareness (SA) and decision making that can be easily employed in future embedded training systems so as to significantly enhance this critical commodity. These training approaches include (1) SA Trainer which employs systematic experiential-based training to build essential knowledge bases and higher-order cognitive skills, (2) Virtual Environment Situation Awareness Review System (VESARS) which employs informed feedback on SA skills, team communications, and the accuracy and completeness of SA, and (3) the SA Virtual Instructor (SAVI) which builds critical SA skills by calibration of good and poor SA practices.