The Influences of Automation and Trainee Aptitude on Training Effectiveness

Abstract

This study examined how the degree of automation provided during training and the general intelligence of the learner operate to influence task learning, and transfer to a no automation environment. An experiment was conducted using the Pasteuriser simulation, with participants assigned to one of three training groups: manual control, user-initiated automation, or automatically-initiated automation. The presence of automation facilitated initial training performance, but hindered performance later in training. When automation support was removed, costs were seen for those trained with automatically-initiated automation. An aptitude-automation interaction was observed, such that automation reduced the relationship between trainee intelligence and training performance. These results suggest that the effectiveness of automation in training will vary not only by the type of automation and the task, but also by the aptitude of the operator.