ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the successful linkage of basic research on visual imagery and spatial thinking to the activities of soldiers tasked to neutralize highly feared and common weapons of both war and terrorism. Visual information-processing studies, particularly research on visual imagery and mental synthesis, guided the analyses and the translation of findings into strategies for training. The projects shared a common approach to training development: Equipment-specific models of expert operators’ skills provided content for designing the training programs. Designing training for novice operators of the PSS-12 and HSTAMIDS focused on teaching them the expert’s techniques and thinking, as well as providing requisite practice opportunities to support their skill development. Training the pattern development aspect of the investigation task posed a special challenge if inferences about how the mine detection experts performed this task were correct. Translating the expert models’ contents into training activities required more than just an understanding of the mechanisms that produced the expert operators’ performance.
