Cognitive Modeling of Crm Assessment Expertise: Identification of the Primary Assessors

Abstract

A cognitive model of instructor Crew Resource Management (CRM) assessment was developed as an integral component of a prototype CRM assessment expert system. The cognitive model provides an instructor-centered approach to CRM assessment in the multi-tasking, time-constrained environment of recurrent Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT). This cognitive modeling is based on systematic analysis of how experienced instructors are able to attend to key crew behaviors and derive consistent CRM assessments in the complex simulator-based training environment. Concept sorting data, collected from recurrent training instructors, was subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis. The analysis identified the mental organization or knowledge structures required to make efficient CRM assessments in the time-constrained LOFT environment. There were three primary assessment clusters that experienced instructors had in common. These clusters of assessment concepts were used to develop the architecture and content of the assessor modules for the prototype CRM assessment expert system. That expert system provides an efficient CRM assessment that is similar to the process and output of the experienced recurrent training instructor. These findings have operational implications for the feasibility of an instructor CRM assessment tool and for making the CRM assessment process more systematic.