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The Combat Hunter program was first conceived in 2007 to meet a training gap in small unit close combat warfighting. This US Marine Corps (USMC) program of instruction (POI) trains the fundamentals of combat profiling, tracking, and optics-based observation, helping students become successful "combat hunters" in an irregular warfare battlespace. Th...
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... Depending on the training context, a small unit leader, an instructor, or an instructional designer would then create or adapt existing exercises to practice those skills. In live training situations, such as Border Hunter [9], instructors create a series of events that are staged by live actors to reflect increasing learner skill and the progressive introduction of new skills. There is often also an overall narrative framing. ...
Scenario-based training provides valuable opportunities for practice and assessment of cross-cultural skills in representative environments. Cross-cultural training that is presented within scenarios can help to motivate trainees and to increase perceptions of relevance and validity. Further, with immersive computer simulations, a sufficiently rich representation can enable tailoring of content, delivering support or challenge for individual trainees when scenario events play out in a variety of ways. However, training scenarios delivered via a computer simulation can be difficult for end users such as instructors to create or to change after they are created. One source of this difficulty is the lack explicit representation of the goals of training or rationales for their design. As a consequence, technical personnel are typically required to make changes, resulting in a process that is costly, slow, and prone to communication errors. Further, training scenarios can become obsolete or fail to reflect the varied needs of different instructors. In this paper, we identify specific limitations to the scenario definition and describe an alternative approach based on computational narrative. The new approach is designed to enable a training system to reason about what training content to tailor and why to deliver suitably tailored and individualized training.
... Sociocultural sensemaking is built through these general methods along with additional culture education, training, and mentorship programs [e.g., 18]. For example, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Combat Hunter program currently teaches personnel to conduct sustained observation of social patterns, and it fosters personnel's social, cultural, and behavioral perceptual skills [20,21]. However, for the military, the efficiency of training is an important consideration, and the Combat Hunter program is time-and personnel-intensive [20]. ...
... For example, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Combat Hunter program currently teaches personnel to conduct sustained observation of social patterns, and it fosters personnel's social, cultural, and behavioral perceptual skills [20,21]. However, for the military, the efficiency of training is an important consideration, and the Combat Hunter program is time-and personnel-intensive [20]. Therefore, automated tools must be designed that help cultivate (and ideally, accelerate) personnel's acquisition of sensemaking skills. ...
Modern military personnel must not only possess typical warfighting abilities; they must also be able to rapidly perceive, understand, and then respond to a range of ambiguous behavioral, social, and cultural stimuli. In other words, personnel must have sociocultural sensemaking skills—preferably intuitive sensemaking skills that allow them to act with the utmost agility. This paper begins by discussing sensemaking, sociocultural pattern recognition, and expertise-based intuition. It briefly describes training approaches for these constructs, as well as training for the integrated concept. Instructional simulations could facilitate such training. However, for simulations to effectively support this subject matter, they must be able to replicate realistic patterns of life, from the subtle characteristics of human body language to the emergent behaviors of crowds. That is, they must provide accurate, nuanced cues to which the trainees can react. This paper closes by discussing our ongoing work to address this gap by modeling realistic cues in a simulation.
... Behavioral anomalies are analyzed to determine if a potential threat requiring further action is present. Combat Profiling skills equip Warfighters to be preemptive, rather than reactive, in their detection and mitigation of threats [2]. The apparent value of Combat Profiling has increased desires to expand the accessibility of training. ...
Combat Profiling involves observation of humans and the environment to identify behavioral anomalies signifying the presence of a potential threat. Desires to expand accessibility to Combat Profiling training motivate the training community to investigate Virtual Environments (VEs). VE design recommendations will benefit efforts to translate Combat Profiling training methods to virtual platforms. Visual aspects of virtual environments may significantly impact observational and perceptual training objectives. This experiment compared the effects of high and low fidelity virtual characters for biometric cue detection training on participant performance and perceptions. Results suggest that high fidelity virtual characters promote positive training perceptions and self-efficacy, but do not significantly impact overall performance.
... Leveraging previous research on the improvements to warfighter performance afforded by programs such as Combat Hunter, Border Hunter, and advanced situational awareness training (Schatz, Reitz, Nicholson, & Fautua, 2010), and the body of work associated with the Future Immersive Training Environment Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (FITE JCTD) (Muller, 2010), a suite of training enablers were offered. ...
... There are 33 KSAs currently associated with ASAT training. The ASAT KSAs are further organized into six objective areas, which had been observed during previous administration of the training (Spiker & Johnston, 2010a;Fautua, et al, 2010;Gideons et al, 2008). ...
... Behavioral observation checklists are a technique utilized for collecting information during field observations on individual and team performance (Spiker & Johnston, 2010b). The behavioral observation checklist employed was previously utilized at Border Hunter (Fautua, et al, 2010), focusing on the human terrain profiling knowledge skills and attitudes drawn out of that research, as first portrayed in Spiker and Johnston, 2010a. ...
There is an increased understanding that training in virtual environments will play a key role in future force development (Department of Defense, 2010)-but there is still a need to better understand the interaction between classroom-based learning, virtual exercises to reinforce those skills and force-on-force field training. There is now a widening body of research on virtual environment performance as an effective preparation for force-on-force field training (Roman & Brown, 2009; De Leo, Sechrist, Radici, & Mastaglio, 2010). The question remains how to best use virtual environments to bridge classroom-based learning and the application of classroom acquired knowledge during tactical military execution. An opportunity to explore virtual infantry training transfer came during Bold Quest 2011 (BQ11), a coalition combat identification event. Four infantry squads received five days of instructor-led Advanced Situational Awareness Training (ASAT) that focused on increasing their situational awareness and improving decision making; a fifth squad did not. Three of the squads who underwent ASAT training and the one squad that did not then conducted two days of virtual environment scenarios focused on training situational awareness and decision making skills in a combat identification environment. All five squads then performed two different, measured and observed force-on-force field scenarios. Our hypothesis was that initial practice in a virtual environment prior to the force on force scenarios would greatly enhance squad exhibition of the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) associated with the instructor-led ASAT class, as compared to those trainees who did not conduct the virtual missions. This paper is a follow on to Reitz and Reist, 2010, providing the results of the then proposed experiment. It will discuss squad performance throughout the BQ11 training event; provide the results of an analysis of the training transfer between classroom, virtual and field training environments; and propose broad requirements to improve the effectiveness of the virtual environment to support combat identification training.
... The USMC developed Combat Hunter in 2007, in response to escalating irregular warfare threats in the Middle East (Gideons, Padilla, & Lethin, 2008). Combat Hunter trains personnel in enhanced observation, combat tracking (i.e., reading the physical terrain), and combat profiling (i.e., reading the "human terrain" or the behaviors and cues from a local population; Schatz et al., 2010). ...
The United States military’s strategic position is evolving, and as a result, the Services are emphasizing the importance of sociocultural pattern recognition, sensemaking in ambiguous urban contexts, and understanding of patterns of life. In fact, military personnel at increasingly lower echelons are expected to possess these nuanced psychosocial perception and decision-making skills. To facilitate training of these complex competencies, the authors are developing a Virtual Observation Platform, an immersive virtual environment designed to adaptively train US Marine Corps personnel in sustained observation, sociocultural pattern recognition, anomaly detection, and other perceptual–cognitive skills. This paper briefly describes the purpose of the system and then covers its adaptive instructional tailoring in detail. The Platform’s adaptive features include information quality/quantity manipulation and instructional scaffolding in the form of communications from a virtual squad (i.e., peers) that are intrinsic to the narrative of the scenario.
... Such training must also be situated in complex scenarios that feature realistic threats as well as the portrayal of multination coordination. Further, Greitzer and Andrews (2010) (Schatz, Reitz, Nicholson, & Fautua, 2010), and the body of work associated with the Future Immersive Training Environment Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (FITE JCTD) (Muller, 2010), a suite of training enablers will be offered. Further, each enabler will be assessed for its effectiveness in improving combat identification during the execution of live complex scenarios. ...
General Dynamics Information Technology Joint and Coalition Warfighting Suffolk, VA Suffolk, VA emilie.reitz.ctr@hr.js.mil jay.reist@hr.js.mil ABSTRACT Fratricide is a fact of war; yet, its pervasiveness is shocking. It is likely to grow as future conflicts are fought in complex urban battlespaces with ever more diverse military coalitions. Under such conditions, correctly identifying " friend from foe " is challenging, and accurate combat identification becomes even more difficult when the " friends " speak different languages, employ diverse tactics and procedures, use dissimilar equipment, and employ differing communication techniques. Solving this challenge is an urgent need, well recognized by coalition forces. In fact, the Strategic Plan for the Next Generation of Training for the Department of Defense lists developing " capabilities for individual and collective training that support evolving fratricide prevention measures and combat identification tactics, techniques and procedures " among its Training Top Ten (Department of Defense, 2010b). Combat identification is currently accomplished through the application of situational awareness and target identification with significant emphasis on utilizing technology-based systems to sort friends from enemies, neutrals and non-combatants. These technology-based systems can only confirm the presence of a friendly force unit or identify a unit as unknown – and that unknown unit could still fall anywhere on the spectrum of friend, enemy, neutral or non-combatant. Novel combat identification tactics, training, and technological innovations must be developed because of this. In this paper, we present a review of the theory and history of combat identification, an assessment of the challenges faced by coalition forces, the gaps, and areas for future developments in training and research. We close with a discussion of a training initiative being assessed at Bold Quest, an annual Joint/coalition exercise at which new combat identification approaches are demonstrated.
... Developed in 2007 by civilian and military subject-matter experts in their respective fields, this course aims to train Marines to maintain situational awareness through skills such as visual search, anomaly detection, pattern recognition, tactical cunning and patience, and mental simulation in ambiguous, dynamic environments. In general, Combat Hunter aims to train improved situational awareness and sensemaking (Schatz, Reitz, Fautua, & Nicholson, 2010). The Combat ...
Adaptive training technologies offer the promise of more individualized and effective training. However, these technologies increase the complexity of training systems. They also potentially can limit the ability of instructors and curriculum developers without technical skills to customize and to adapt training to specific instructional demands. This paper describes a methodology for verifying that an adaptive training system is configurable and responsive to specifications encoded by instructors. That is, when an instructor desires for the training system to respond in particular ways in particular circumstances, how readily can the adaptive training technology be used to execute that specification? The paper describes a verification methodology and its application to a dynamic adaptation capability in a desktop-based simulation-training prototype.
In order to survive in combat zones, an individual soldier must be proficient in the following skills: Pattern recognition and Behavior cue detection. Although, current military training requirements are inadequate for developing pattern recognition and behavior detection, research shows that Simulation-based Training, via virtual environments (VE’s) can improve pattern recognition and behavior detection skills. However, the use of VEs for visually dependent tasks may also increase simulator sickness in some individuals. This experiment compared a virtual version of Kim’s game (i.e., an observational game to increase memory and performance) to a control group to assess the role of simulator sickness on performance. Participants were randomly assigned to either the Kim’s game or control condition and completed a pre-test, training vignette, and post-test. During the experiment, participants recorded their level of simulator sickness using a questionnaire developed by Kennedy et al. (International Journal of Aviation Psychology 3:203–220, 1993 [1]). The data analysis revealed that the Kim’s game group reported higher levels of simulator sickness symptoms which had a negative effect on performance (i.e., detection accuracy and false positive detection). The results also indicated that there was a positive correlation in the control group between disorientation and detection accuracy. This implies that the control group may have become familiar with the experimental task, suggesting that simulator sickness did not negatively impact their performance. The following paper discusses the influence of simulator sickness on performance and offers new ways to reduce simulator sickness for behavior cue detection training.
Simulation-based practice environments would be more valuable for learning if they supported adaptive, targeted responses to students as they proceed thru the experiences afforded by the environment. However, many adaptation strategies require a richer interpretation of the student’s actions and attitudes than is available thru the typical simulation interface. Further, creating extended interfaces for a single application solely to support adaptation is often cost-prohibitive. In response, we are developing “learner instrumentation middleware” that seeks to provide a generalized representation of learner state via reusable algorithms, design patterns, and software.
