ABSTRACT
Members of small tactical units interact with patterns of life, where they are immersed in complex adaptive environments often including novel problems. Simply stated, the cognitive demands for Marine infantrymen are growing because the adversaries they face have become so adaptive. To succeed, the infantryman must learn to apply keen intuition, leverage individual tacit knowledge and lived experiences, recognize complex inter-dependencies in situations, and act decisively. In order to understand why some small unit leaders have an exceptional knack for using these abilities, we interviewed Combat Hunters particularly proficient in using their cognitive abilities and perceptual skills to anticipate enemy actions and operate inside the enemy’s decision cycle. We applied a number of cognitive task analysis (CTA) methods to understand the nature of the expertise and to transform our understanding into executable learning strategies. This research has significant implications for understanding how small unit leader learn to think as well as assessment of the cognitive abilities during training before the first day of combat.
