“Being prepared for the infrequent”: A comparative study of two refresher training approaches and their effects on temporal and adaptive transfer in a process control task

Abstract

Operators working with highly automated technical systems face the challenge of skill retention due to few opportunities to apply the skills they acquired during initial training. Therefore, the use of refresher training is common in many high-risk environments. However, so far, the design and effectiveness of refresher training has not been focused on in training and human factors related research. We compared two refresher training approaches–practice and symbolic rehearsal–to a control group without refresher training. Fifty-nine engineering students were trained for one hour on a simulated process control task. A week later, the practice group completed four trials with the simulated task and the symbolic rehearsal group underwent four trials in written form. The final testing session took place two weeks after initial training. Refresher training was effective for temporal transfer, with the practice refresher group performing significantly better than the symbolic rehearsal group.