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Making instructions “visible” on the interface: an approach to learning fault diagnosis skills through guided discovery

✍ Scribed by TOM KONTOGIANNIS; NADIA LINOU


Book ID
102572051
Publisher
Elsevier Science
Year
2001
Tongue
English
Weight
499 KB
Volume
54
Category
Article
ISSN
1071-5819

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✦ Synopsis


Operator training in fault diagnosis of complex systems has taken several forms including heuristics, decision #ow charts and qualitative plant modelling. Having to comply to a speci"c learning strategy, however, may increase workload in remembering instructions, constrain people in accommodating their own styles and deny opportunities for exploiting other strategies. A means for increasing learning #exibility and adaptability would be to manipulate the design of the interface in ways that prompt operators to recall past instructions or develop their own strategies. In this study, instructions are made visible on the interface by presenting trainees with a set of tell-tale signs derived from diagnostic heuristics.

A group of subjects ¹(new) was trained in using this interface while verbal instructions (e.g. plant theory) were provided to guide discovery of diagnostic rules; a second group ¹(old) received the same plant theory but practised on a conventional interface. Two other groups used the conventional interface and were trained to apply a set of heuristics with or without the support of a plant theory (H#¹ and H groups, respectively). Making instructions visible helped the ¹(new) group to achieve higher accuracy scores than the ¹(old) group on a subset of fault scenarios. On a near-transfer task, both the ¹(new) and ¹(old) groups were superior to the heuristics (H) group. On transfer to another plant, the ¹(new) group maintained superiority to the heuristics (H) group and exceeded the ¹(old) group only in a subset of fault scenarios; the di!erences between the ¹(new) and the H#¹ groups were not signi"cant. The results may indicate that making instructions visible could enhance acquisition and also the transfer of complex skills while allowing for #exibility and adaptability in the learning environment.

2001 Academic Press