Page 271 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

training methods 255
much feedback (Ilgen, Fisher, & Taylor, 1979). Feedback serves important informational
and motivational functions (Frese, 1995; Ivancic & Hesketh, 1995/1996), both of which
can be used to enhance training and transfer. Positive feedback reinforces good per-
formance and creates a supportive transfer climate (Tracey, Tannenbaum, & Kavanagh,
1995) whereas negative feedback motivates trainees to update and revise inadequate
schemata (Frese, 1995). Although negative feedback plays an important corrective role,
the benefits of learning from one’s errors is often overlooked because of a reluctance
on the part of trainers to deliver, and trainees to accept, negative feedback (Ilgen et al.,
1979). Trainees may need to learn to develop an error-tolerant attitude by participating in
training which promotes a mastery orientation (Hesketh & Frese, 2000). Mastery goals
are associated with the tendency to view obstacles as “challenges” and to persevere in
the face of failure (Dweck & Leggett, 1988), thereby focusing attention on the potential
to learn from mistakes. Mastery goals are related to increased meta-cognitive activity,
which in turn is related to increased knowledge, skill acquisition, and self-efficacy (Ford
et al., 1998). Although mastery goals are particularly important early in training, per-
formance goals that emphasize the expert, errorless execution of a skill may need to be
given more prominence as training progresses (Kraiger, Ford & Salas, 1993).

TRAINING METHODS

One of the key decisions facing trainers when selecting a training method is the extent to
which it permits the course content to be presented as specific to the task or more generic.
Traditionally, rules and principles have been favoured because their generality provides
a mechanism for transfer (Nisbett, Fong, Lehmann, & Cheng, 1987). However, recent
years have seen an increase in the popularity of “situated learning” or “problem-based
learning” which situates learning in a particular context. Problem-solving strategies and
knowledge about a domain are assumed to develop concurrently during the course of
solving actual or simulated problem situations (Greeno, 1997). The potential for transfer
to similar situations is high because the requirements of the training activity are similar
or identical to actual task requirements, thereby capitalizing on the number of “identical
elements” (Thorndike & Woodworth, 1901). However, concerns have been raised over
the degree to which subsequent knowledge is specific to the context in which it was
acquired, or whether it can be applied more generally (Hesketh, 1997a). This issue
is closely related to the ongoing debate over the relative benefits of rule-based versus
exemplar-based learning in the cognitive psychology literature. It also relates to the issue
of short-term versus long-term training outcomes in that “situated learning” may lead to
short-term gains in terms of facilitating transfer to similar problems, but may not lead to
adaptable performance if task demands change in the longer term.

RULES AND EXAMPLES
As noted previously, course content usually progresses from general rules and princi-
ples to specific examples, with the rules and principles acting as “advance organizers”
(Mayer, 1979) for subsequent information. Rules and principles promote transfer be-
cause of their wide applicability to a range of problems, but their very generality reduces
their apparent relevance to specific instances (Salomon & Perkins, 1989). Catrambone