ABSTRACT
If automated skills serve as the foundation of complex skills, then procedural skills are the building blocks of the skilled performance required in aviation jobs. Procedural skills may include some automated skills, but these two skill types have different properties. Like automated skills, presented in Chapter 6, procedural skills promote rapid performance. Unlike automated skills, procedural skills do not contribute substantially to effortless performance because they require attention and processing. Procedural skills are located above automated skills and below decision making skills in the cognitive skill hierarchy. As a skill type, procedural skills are the most familiar to the aviation community because they include the accurate and rapid performance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Operationally, procedural skills mandate different training methods than automated skills, so the aviation community should distinguish between the two skill types. In addition, procedural skills are analyzed using different Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) methods than those used for automated skills.
