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Improving Learning Persistence of Military Personnel by Enhancing Motivation in a Technical Trainiing Program

Navy Personnel Research and Development Center

Barbara A. McDonald

San Diego State University

This study investigated the effect of motivational variables on task persistence and performance in Navy technical training. The motivation variables consisted of a context of either a game or a drill and payoff points that were either fixedor variable. This resulted in four groups: (a) game context with fixed pay off (b) game context with variable payoff, (c) drill context with fixed payoff and (d) drill context with variable payoff In all experimental conditions, students were asked to solve 10 circuit problems. In the game context, students simulated the role of an electrician repairing circuits. Students moved a cursor around a maze representing a Navy ship 'floor plan to locate and repair faulty circuits to prevent the ship from sinking. If water started to rise in the ship, students knew they needed to improve their performance. In the drill context, students were presented with the same problems one at a time without the simulated game embellishments. In the fixed-payoff condition, each problem was worth a fixed number of points, regardless of the difficulty level selected by students. For each problem in the variable-payoff condition, points varied according to the difficulty level, types of help, and quits selected. Dependent variables were accuracy, persistence, time, level of difficulty, attempts, helps, and quits selected. The results show that a task-based simulation game combined with a variable payoff increased student persistence in selecting high levels of difficulty and induced a conservative behavior in relying on feedback helps. Further, the result was in the direction of improved performance for game with variable payoff.

Key Words: drill • fixed payoff game • learning • military • motivation • persistence • technical • training • variable payoff

Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 24, No. 3, 294-313 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/1046878193243002


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