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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human

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Enhancement of Human Performance, National Research Council
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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

IN THE MIND'S EYE

ENHANCING HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork, Editors

Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement

of Human Performance
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS

Washington, D.C. 1991
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

ii

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the
National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy
of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of
the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard
for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures
approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sci-
ences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Support for the project that is the subject of this report was provided by the Army Research
Institute.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
In the mind's eye : enhancing human performance / Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork, editors.
p. cm.
“Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance, Commission
on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-309-04398-0 (cloth); ISBN 0-309-04747-1 (paper)
1. Performance—Psychological aspects. I. Druckman, Daniel, 1939- . II. Bjork, Robert
A. III. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Techniques for the Enhance-
ment of Human Performance.
BF481.I5 1991
158—dc20
91-23941
CIP
Copyright © 1991 by the National Academy of Sciences
No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic proce-
dure, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmit-
ted, or otherwise copied for public or private use, wihout written permission from the publisher
except for the purpose of official use by the United States government.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, September 1991
Second Printing, June 1992

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

iii

COMMITTEE ON TECHNIQUES FOR THE

ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE

ROBERT A. BJORK (Chair), Department of Psychology, University of

California, Los Angeles
MICHELENE T. H. CHI, Learning Research and Development Center,
University of Pittsburgh
ROBERT W. CHRISTINA, Department of Physical Therapy and Exericise
Science, State University of New York, Buffalo
JAMES H. DAVIS, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois
GERALD C. DAVISON, Department of Psychology, University of Southern
California
ERIC EICH, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia
RAY HYMAN, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
DANIEL LANDERS, Department of Physical Education, Arizona State
University
FRANCIS J. PIROZZOLO, Department of Neurology, Baylor College of
Medicine
LYMAN W. PORTER, Graduate School of Management, University of
California, Irvine
JEROME E. SINGER, Department of Medical Psychology, Uniformed Services
University of the Health Sciences
RICHARD F. THOMPSON, Department of Psychology and Neurosciences
Program, University of Southern California
DANIEL DRUCKMAN, Study Director
DONNA REIFSNIDER, Senior Project Assistant

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

iv

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

CONTENTS v

Contents

Preface vii
PART I OVERVIEW 1
1 Background 3
The Committee's First Phase 3
The Committee's Second Phase 4
The Report 6
References 11
2 Findings and Conclusions 12
Training 12
Altering Mental States 15
Performing 18
PART II TRAINING 21
3 Optimizing Long-Term Retention and Transfer 23
Long-Term Retention 25
Transfer of Training 37
Conclusions and Implications for Training 47
References 49
4 Modeling Expertise 57
Cognitive Apprenticeship 59
How Experts Excel 63
Eliciting Knowledge from Experts 70
Imparting Experts' Knowledge to Trainees 71
Summary and Conclusions 75
References 76
5 Developing Careers 80
A Framework for Career Development 81
Army Programs 89
An Appraisal of the MBTI 96
Conclusions 101
Notes 102
References 102
PART III ALTERING MENTAL STATES 105
6 Subliminal Self-Help 107
Subjectively Perceptible Versus Objectively Detectable Stim- 110
uli
Mobilization, Effort Justification, and Expectancy Effects 113
Conclusions 116
Notes 117
References 117
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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

CONTENTS vi

7 Meditation 120
Scientific Evaluations of Meditation 121
Critique of the Literature Review 127
A Cautionary Note on Epistemology 130
Conclusions 130
Note 131
References 132
8 Managing Pain 134
Aspects of Pain 134
Treating Acute Pain 138
Treating Chronic Pain 141
Conclusions 143
References 144
9 Hiding and Detecting Deception 148
Physical Indicators and Psychological States 149
Improving Detection 156
Context and Culture 160
Conclusions 164
Notes 166
References 167
10 A Broader Concept of Deception 171
Types of Deception 172
Theories, Taxonomies, and Frameworks 173
Interactive Settings 185
Conclusions 188
Notes 189
References 189
PART IV PERFORMING 191
11 Optimizing Individual Performance 193
The Mental Health Model of Sports Performance 193
Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions 203
Preperformance Routines, Sports Performance, and Physio- 215
logical Measures,
Exercise and Stress 225
Broader Views: Neuroscience and Peak Performance 227
Conclusions 233
Notes 234
References 235
12 Enhancing Team Performance 247
Research on Groups: In the Laboratory and on the Job 247
Individuals and Teams 249
Team Performance 251
Team Performance: From Laboratory to Field 257
Conclusions 265
Note 266
References 266
APPENDICES
A Committee Activities 273
B Biographical Sketches 276
Index 283
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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

PREFACE vii

Preface

This is the second report of the Committee on Techniques for the

Enhancement of Human Performance. The committee's first report, Enhancing
Human Performance: Issues, Theories and Techniques, was published by the
National Academy Press in 1988. That report was the product of a process that
began in 1984 when the Army Research Institute (ARI) asked the National
Academy of Sciences/National Research Council to form a committee to assess
the promise of some “new age” techniques designed to enhance human
performance. Those techniques, developed largely outside the academic research
establishment, offered the potential to accelerate learning, improve motor skills,
alter mental states, reduce stress, increase social influence, foster group cohesion,
and—in the parapsychological domain—produce remote viewing and
psychokinetic control of electronic devices. In response to ARI's request, a
committee of 14 experts, selected for their expertise in relevant basic-science
areas, was appointed under the auspices of the Commission on Behavioral and
Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE) within the National Research Council
and began its work.
The reaction to the release of Enhancing Human Performance was
considerable, at both the public and professional levels. A press conference was
well attended, and the subsequent media coverage of the committee's
recommendations was extensive; reviews of the book appeared in a number of
magazines and professional journals. In general, reaction to the report was very
favorable (see, e.g., the thorough review by Philip Morrison in Scientific
American [1988]). The committee was not without its critics, however.
Advocates of certain techniques that were

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

PREFACE viii

not viewed favorably accused the committee of being biased or closed minded,
and others found certain of the committee's (relatively few) positive
recommendations to be less than tough minded. (For a summary of reactions to
the committee's first report, see J.A. Swets and R.A. Bjork [1990]: Enhancing
human performance: an evaluation of “new age” techniques considered by the
U.S. Army. Psychological Science 1(2):85-96.)
The committee's second agenda emerged in part as a consequence of its first
report. It became apparent that certain techniques that had not been on the
committee's initial agenda deserved attention, such as using a model of the expert
as a guide to training, and that other topics deserved more thorough analysis, such
as meditation and other methods of altering mental states. Other techniques for
committee study were suggested by virtue of their popular attention, particularly
subliminal self-help audio tapes, self-assessment techniques to aid career
development, and sports-psychology techniques to sustain performance under
pressure. Still other topics resulted from meetings with Army staff, who
encouraged the committee to explore possible innovations in training based on
academic research, particularly with respect to long-term retention of critical
skills and transfer of those skills to altered contexts; and who provided
information on career development in the Army, on the special problems of
maintaining high performance in high-stress/high-risk settings, and on the
problems of detecting—and avoiding the detection of—deception. The final
topics for the new agenda, managing pain and enhancing team performance, were
added after committee discussions at the beginning of its second phase. With its
mission fully in place, the committee embarked on the same mixture of activities
that characterized its first phase; the committee's activities are discussed in
Chapter 1 and detailed in Appendix A.
Looking back on a committee process that was efficient, productive, and
stimulating, it is now my pleasure as committee chair to acknowledge
contributors to that process. Various people within the Army were more than
helpful. Dr. Edgar M. Johnson, director of the Army Research Institute, has been a
steady source of support, encouragement, and wise advice during the entire life
of the committee. Our project monitors from the Army Research Institute, Dr.
Michael Drillings and Dr. Judith Orasanu, provided able administrative and
technical advice, and Major John H. Hagman of the Uniformed Health Services
University, Department of Military Medicine, was a valuable source of
information and advice in our work.
To General Maxwell Thurman (ret.), whose enthusiasm and vision played a
major role in initiating our work, the committee owes a special debt. In his
commitment to research—and to the belief that each of us

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

PREFACE ix

should be all that we can be—he has been a continuing source of inspiration and
support. His constructive reactions to the first report, his many ideas for follow-
on ARI projects, and his ability to convey the training and performance needs of
the Army did much to shape the agenda and orientation of the committee's second
phase. Similarly, General John Crosby (ret.), who assisted General Thurman and
the committee since its inception, has also been a valuable friend of the
committee.
Other key people in the Army made it possible for the committee to
complete various projects and site visits. Dr. Owen Jacobs of the Army Research
Institute provided invaluable advice and information relevant to career programs
in the Army, and Dr. Herbert Barber at the Army War College helped the
committee administer a career-instrument survey and provided advice. General
Stanley Hyman arranged for a subcommittee to visit Fort Belvoir in order to
discuss the Army's concerns surrounding the issue of deception, and Major
Robert Roland of the Special Operations Command made special arrangements
for committee members who went to Fort Bragg to talk with Army leaders about
group performance and training. The committee also profited from the Army
representatives who spoke at our meetings (see Appendix A).
Several individuals outside the Army were also critical in the committee's
activities. Vic Braden, founder and director of the Vic Braden Tennis College,
opened his training facilities to the committee and provided an instructive
overview of his teaching methods in tennis and other sports. Raymond Mulligan,
Curriculum Development Coordinator at the L.F. Sillin Nuclear Training Center
in Connecticut, arranged for members of several subcommittees to see the special
training and performance needs of operators and other personnel in nuclear
power environments.
The authors of the committee's commissioned papers, Laura Darke, Manuel
London, David Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Paul Thayer, deserve special appreciation
for their good work. We also wish to thank the panel of scientists who reviewed
our report on behalf of the Research Council; it profited greatly from their
criticisms and suggestions. Our report also profited from the gifted editorial hand
of Eugenia Grohman, CBASSE Associate Director for Reports; we appreciate her
understanding of the issues and her ability to make technical writing readable. We
also appreciate Elaine McGarraugh's thorough and organized job of proofing and
copy editing the entire manuscript. And we are grateful to Donna Reifsnider, the
committee's administrative assistant, who cheerfully handled innumerable details
across all stages of the committee process.
For John Swets, a treasured friend, I want to add a word of personal thanks.
As chair of the committee's first phase, he served as an expert, if impossible,
model. Throughout the committee's second phase he

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

PREFACE x

remained a constant source—when asked—of good advice and honest opinions.

To Dan Druckman, our study director, I want to express my profound
respect and gratitude. We took full advantage of his talents as a writer and editor,
as a scholar of unusual breadth, and as a manager; it was his tenacity and
planning that must be credited with keeping the committee mostly on track and on
time. Finally, I want to express my personal debt to the committee members
themselves—for their cooperation, their wisdom, and their good humor.
ROBERT A. BJORK, Chair
Committee on Techniques for the
Enhancement of Human Performance

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

xi

IN THE MIND'S EYE

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

xii

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

PART I
Overview

THE TWO CHAPTERS IN THIS PART PROVIDE the background for the committee's
study and a summary of its key findings and conclusions. Chapter 1 describes the
history of the project, summarizes the conclusions of the committee's first report,
describes tasks for the second phase of work, and presents overviews of each of
the chapters in this book.
The committee's key findings and conclusions are summarized in Chapter 2.
Three types of conclusions are presented: those that summarize implications from
completed research, those that call for needed research, and those that have
practical implications for organizational contexts. The committee's detailed
conclusions on each topic are presented in the final sections of each chapter.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 3

1
Background

THE COMMITTEE'S FIRST PHASE

Six years ago the Army Research Institute (ARI) asked the National
Research Council (NRC) to assess a field of popular techniques designed to
enhance human performance. As a class, these techniques were considered
extraordinary: they were developed outside of mainstream research in the
behavioral sciences and were accompanied by strong claims for high
effectiveness. The “new age” techniques, many of which grew out of the human
potential movement of the 1960s, were getting much attention in the popular
press and being widely touted and sold to government and industry training
programs. The Army's interest in assessing these techniques was propelled by its
desire for large and quick enhancements of human performance, by any means
available, and by substantial advocacy that fields such as parapsychology offered
substantial potential for waging exceptionally advanced warfare.
In consultation with ARI, the NRC committee selected for evaluation a
number of unconventional techniques that had been proposed to the Army to
speed up the process of bringing unskilled and sometimes undereducated recruits
to the level needed for an increasingly technical military force. Specifically, the
Army was interested in accelerated learning, improved motor skills, altered
mental states, stress reduction, interpersonal influence, group cohesion, and
certain parapsychological processes. In addition to evaluating the claims of these
techniques, the committee examined two other general questions: What are the
appropriate criteria for evaluating claims for such techniques in the future?

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 4

What research is needed to advance understanding of performance enhancement

in areas related to those techniques?
In its report, Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and
Techniques (Druckman and Swets, 1988), the committee presented conclusions
for several areas of performance: whether more basic or applied research is
warranted; whether Army training programs could benefit from new findings and
procedures; and what, in particular, might be worth monitoring for possible
breakthroughs. Finding that the claims made for many of the techniques did not
withstand scientific scrutiny, the committee warned against substituting personal
experience and marketplace popularity for research evidence.
The committee's work produced specific answers to questions regarding how
to improve performance. On the positive side, the committee found scientific
evidence for: the possibility of priming future learning by presenting material
during certain stages of sleep; improving learning by integrating certain
instructional elements; improving skilled motor performance through various
combinations of mental and physical practice; reducing stress by providing
information that increases a person's sense of control; and maximizing group
performance by taking advantage of organizational cultures to transmit values. On
the negative side, the committee found: a lack of supporting evidence for such
techniques as visual training exercises, hemispheric synchronization, and
neurolinguistic programming; a lack of scientific justification for the
parapsychological phenomena reviewed; some potentially negative effects for
group cohesion; and ambiguous evidence for the effectiveness of the learning
package known as suggestive accelerative learning and teaching techniques. (See
also Swets and Bjork [1990] for a summary of the committee's findings.)
The favorable reports received from various field units encouraged the Army
to follow many of the committee's recommendations, including support for field
experiments on mental practice conducted at Fort Knox and Redstone Arsenal; a
renewed interest in stress-reduction procedures, including meditation; a reduced
interest in programs designed to train officers to use neurolinguistic programming
and hemispheric synchronization; and a decision to discourage applications of
parapsychological techniques. The Army also decided to ask the committee to
continue work in the area of enhancing human performance.

THE COMMITTEE'S SECOND PHASE

The committee's mandate for a second phase consisted of following up some
recommendations made in the first report, in particular, to address broad
theoretical principles underlying training programs. A

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 5

consideration of training issues is driven by practical needs: as the largest training

institution in the world, the Army faces increasing demands for technical skills
needed to perform sophisticated combat and noncombat missions. Related to
these demands are issues of long-term career development: career planning must
now take into account the cultivation and perpetuation of skills needed to perform
complex tasks. A variety of factors are relevant, including basic psychological
knowledge, skills acquisition and maintenance, expert modeling, optimizing
performance under special conditions, performing under pressure, and team
performance. These are some of the topics that formed the agenda for the
committee's second phase of work.
In this phase, the committee turned from an evaluation of some popular
techniques claimed to enhance human performance to a consideration of more
basic issues of performance. These issues can be divided broadly into three parts:
training and career development, altering mental states for improved
performance, and performing, at both the individual and team level. Work on
these issues was implemented through a subcommittee structure (see
Appendix A).
Training issues were considered as three topics: problems of training for
long-term retention of skills; modeling of expertise on complex skills; and
developing careers over the long term. Four topics were included in the study of
altering mental states: an evaluation of subliminal self-help audio cassette tapes in
terms of what is known about subliminal learning; a review of the literature on
the effects of meditation; a survey of what is known about the psychological
aspects of managing pain; and an examination of issues concerned with deceiving
and detecting deception in both laboratory and field settings. The problem of
deception was included in part because of its relevance to practical issues of
military security and in part because of its relevance to the topic of altering
mental states for performance, which in turn relates to performing. Under the
third set of issues, two topics were considered: techniques that facilitate preparing
to perform, drawing on a large literature from the expanding field of sports
psychology; and team performance, including a review of what is known about
group problem solving and interactive decision making and a consideration of
that basic knowledge in the context of real-world problems faced by such large
organizations as the military.
The topics grew out of a framework for depicting processes and strategies
for enhancing human performance. Arranged in one order, the topics reflect a
sequence of stages from training strategies (stage 1), to preparation to perform
strategies (stage 2), to actual performance (stage 3), to the postperformance
retention of skills (stage 4). Arranged in another way, the topics reflect a focus on
either emotional (mental states),

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 6

cognitive (modeling), or motor (performance) skills. Cutting across these

schemes are issues of context and levels of analysis. With regard to context, we
considered implications of training programs for career development. With regard
to levels of analysis, we asked whether training strategies that work for
individuals also work for groups: if not, why not? What are appropriate strategies
for enhancing group performance?
The committee's approach to evaluation issues was presented in its first
report (Druckman and Swets, 1988). One of the two key evaluation issues
concerns basic research in terms of plausibility of inferences and causation. The
second issue concerns field tests: Does a program work in field settings? Is it cost
effective? The philosophy of evaluation discussed in that volume also guided the
committee's work in this phase of its activities.
A large variety of information contributed to the committee's work; the
committee benefited from the advice of experts who either prepared
commissioned papers or hosted site visits at their laboratories or training facilities
(see Appendix A). Papers prepared by Manuel London on career development, by
Paul Thayer on self-assessment techniques, by David Shannahoff-Khalsa on
meditation, and by Laura Darke on pain management complemented the
published literature on those topics and provided useful conceptual frameworks
not found elsewhere. Visits to Fort Bragg, Fort Belvoir, West Point, the U.S.
Olympic Committee, Vic Braden's tennis college, and the Sillin Nuclear Training
Center in Connecticut alerted the committee to real-world training issues and the
way that actual programs to enhance performance are developed. An experiment
on mental practice conducted at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama provided an
opportunity to confront the problems of doing experiments in field settings, as
well as further insight into the issue of generality of laboratory results. And a
survey of Army War College students contributed to the committee's analysis of
career development. Our findings from all of these activities, in addition to
reviews of the most recent available research and the state of the art, are presented
in this report.

THE REPORT
This section gives readers an overview of the report, summarizing the key
themes for each chapter. The next chapter presents the committee's key findings
and conclusions. Though addressing the Army's concerns in particular, the
conclusions have a broad relevance to training and performance in educational
and industrial contexts as well, and they add to the research literature on
enhancing human performance.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 7

Training

Optimizing Long-Term Retention

Skills and knowledge gained in instructional programs are often exercised
much later, even as long as a year or more following training. Thus, the
committee examined training procedures that may be optimal for long-term
posttraining effectiveness. Learning procedures are often evaluated by how
rapidly they bring the learner to some criterion level of performance. There is now
abundant research suggesting that procedures that might appear optimal if
measured by short-term performance may be less than optimal if performances
are measured weeks, months, or years after training. In this chapter the committee
examines training procedures for enhancing the long-term retention of expertise,
of nonexpert cognitive skills and knowledge, and of motor skills.

Modeling Expertise
The potential of modeling experts for enhancing performance was suggested
by the committee's prior review of neurolinguistic programming (NLP), by recent
research findings, and by developments in sports training. In its otherwise
pessimistic evaluation of NLP, the committee found promise in the importance
that NLP attributes to decoding an expert's behavior as a guide to training a
beginner. Research on the nature of expertise has flourished in recent years and
may provide a foundation for training programs. In this chapter the committee
addresses issues related to understanding the knowledge that experts possess and
how this knowledge is organized. This discussion draws on a large body of
contemporary research on the concept of expertise. Other issues concern the
nature of feedback in the context of apprenticeship learning and guided
participation as well as issues concerned with transfer of training and
generalization from a few training examples. The latter issue has special
relevance to the many Army training programs where a skill is learned in one
context and must be performed in another setting.

Developing Careers
Two broad issues on careers are addressed by the committee: long-term
career development in the military and the value of self-assessment techniques in
career counseling. An attempt is made in this chapter to develop a broad
perspective on career development. The perspective reflects insights from recent
literature on managerial development and

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 8

performance in organizations and is a basis for a framework or model of careers

that can be used to guide planning for an officer's progression through the ranks. A
class of techniques designed to improve performance through increased self-
insight is widely used in public and private organizations, including the Army.
Although they have considerable appeal to both trainers and trainees, they have
been subject to little rigorous research. In this chapter the committee surveys the
use of these techniques in the Army, reports the results of a pilot evaluation of the
impact on respondents, and conducts an appraisal of the most popular instrument
of this genre, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Altering Mental States

Subliminal Self-Help
A large market for subliminal audiotapes suggests that many people believe
that they contribute to self-improvement. Although many manufacturers claim
that their tapes can alter attitudes, enhance confidence, and reduce anxieties, they
do not provide references to studies demonstrating such effects. Despite the lack
of supporting scientific evidence for particular methods, however, psychological
research leaves little doubt that subliminal learning does occur. In its first report,
the committee recommended taking a second look at phenomena associated with
learning during sleep or without conscious awareness. A renewed interest by
researchers in subliminal learning is due to recent results showing that some
measures of memory seem sensitive to types of learning without awareness.
These research developments, together with the marketplace popularity of
various self-help techniques, led the committee to examine these phenomena
further. Two issues in particular are highlighted in this chapter: the difference
between subjectively perceptible and objectively detectable stimuli and reasons
for an apparent improvement in performance in the absence of detectable
subliminal suggestions. Although there are implications for these issues from the
basic research literature on the history and current status of subliminal
perception, no attempt is made to review that large literature.

Meditation
During its first phase the committee recommended investigations of methods
designed to alter mental states to ascertain whether they might suggest any
practical applications. Results obtained from a number of studies suggest that
altered states of consciousness may affect a variety of physiological processes
related to performance. Altered states can

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 9

occur through the use of such methods as meditation and related relaxation
therapies as well as through nonpharmacological ways of coping with physical
pain. Of particular relevance to the military is the use of psychological methods to
help people endure extremely stressful situations. This chapter considers what is
known about effects of meditation and discusses the problem of application of
meditation techniques in diverse situations. In this chapter the committee
considers such issues as the role of meditation in reducing stress and
hypertension, methodological problems in studies designed to evaluate effects on
arousal (e.g, whether the effects are due uniquely to the meditation technique),
and explanations of such well-known feats of endurance as “pit burials.” The
chapter includes a summary of a critique of an earlier report (prepared by Brener
and Connally [1986] for the Army Research Institute) that reviewed much of the
scientific literature on meditation.

Managing Pain
A topic of considerable importance to the military is the way people cope
with pain. A large literature on the psychology of pain and pain management
provides some insights into coping skills. This chapter focuses on both defining
the various types of pain and considering some treatments that have received
attention in research on acute and chronic pain; it describes four dimensions of
pain management and summarizes the seven psychological factors that influence
the experience of pain. Among the treatments for acute pain that have been
evaluated are providing sensory and procedural information to patients about
surgery, relaxation training, training in coping skills, stress inoculation training,
biofeedback, and hypnosis. With regard to chronic pain, the emphasis is on
controlling pain behaviors: for example, one approach uses operant conditioning
techniques to reward reduced reliance on medications and health care services.

Hiding and Detecting Deception

Problems of hiding and detecting deception were construed by the
committee to be part of the more general topic of physical manifestations of
mental and emotional states. Focusing primarily on nonverbal manifestations, this
chapter reviews experimental literature on cues to lying and on problems in
detecting deception. A number of nonverbal behaviors have been found to
indicate deception as practiced by laboratory subjects; particularly revealing are
cues “leaked” by individuals who are highly motivated to succeed in perpetrating a
deception. This chapter considers many aspects of nonverbal behavior and the
experimental

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 10

findings with subjects—both amateurs and experts—who try to detect deception.

A Broad Concept of Deception

A key question is whether the laboratory results on nonverbal indicators of
deception can be generalized to other real-world situations and to populations
other than those who are usually the subjects of laboratory experiments. This
chapter considers broad issues of definition with a view toward developing a
conceptual framework that provides a basis for studying deception at several
levels of analysis. A number of taxonomic formulations of deception are
reviewed with special attention paid to differences among cultures and
subpopulations in the perpetration and detection of deception. The broadened
perspective taken in this chapter allows for consideration of forms of deception
other than lying and the practice of deception by organizations or governments as
well as by individuals.

Performing

Optimizing Individual Performance

After one has been trained—that is, after one has acquired the necessary
skills for a given task—there are issues related to performing effectively when it
matters. Research in sports psychology suggests that such preparation strategies
as mental rehearsal and automating preperformance motor routines may prime or
stabilize the cognitive motor programs that underlie skilled performance. The
committee's previous review of experimental studies on mental practice
confirmed the effectiveness of the technique; less is known about the
effectiveness of the technique in applied settings, which is one focus of this
chapter. A variety of other techniques that have received attention in the
academic sports psychology literature are also discussed. Some of these
techniques may help to induce or maintain bodily states that are correlated with
high performance. A small number of studies on these strategies have been
completed to date and, along with site visits to West Point and the U.S. Olympic
Training facilities, form the basis for the committee's conclusions.

Enhancing Team Performance

In this chapter the committee addresses questions of similarities and
differences between individual and group performance. Two questions are of
particular interest: What is an optimal mix of training time spent

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BACKGROUND 11

in developing individual skills and group practice? What modifications are

needed for studies of undifferentiated groups to be applied to training of stratified
and multifunctional groups? From a practical standpoint, these issues are
important because of the variety of Army squads and units whose tasks pose
complex training requirements. From a research perspective, these issues call
attention to literatures in social psychology and human factors on group versus
individual performance and raise questions concerning the applicability of
laboratory results to field settings. Although a number of efforts have been made
to engineer improvements in group performance—such as brainstorming
procedures, Delphi technique, and nominal group technique—surprisingly little
evaluation research has been done to determine their effectiveness. Moreover,
long-term training of teams has rarely been studied. In this chapter the committee
discusses the problems of limited research, difficulties of doing group research in
university settings, and the particular contextual considerations for team training
in the military. The military is uniquely suited for research on group problems
both with respect to the pool of available subjects for such studies and the
realistic conditions under which group performance can be observed.

REFERENCES
Brener, J., and S.R. Connally 1986 Meditation: Rationales, Experimental Effects, and
Methodological Issues. Paper prepared for the U.S. Army Research Institute for the
Behavioral and Social Sciences, European Division. Department of Psychology, University
of Hull, London, England.
Druckman, D., and J. Swets, eds. 1988 Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and
Techniques. Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance,
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Swets, J.A., and R.A. Bjork 1990 Enhancing human performance: an evaluation of “new age”
techniques considered by the U.S. Army. Psychological Science 1(2):85-96.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 12

2
Findings and Conclusions

In this chapter we present key findings and conclusions for each of the
topics investigated. Each conclusion derives from a review and evaluation of
literature on that topic. Together, the various lines of research covered in this
report reveal the complexity of the problems involved in enhancing human
performance. At the same time, the research also clearly indicates approaches
that can improve training and guide the preperformance preparation of teams and
individuals. The research also helps illuminate special performance issues, such
as changing one's mental states, detecting deception, and developing the careers
of individuals in large organizations.
Most of the committee's conclusions are summaries derived directly from
research findings; others however, are suggestions for research where we need to
know more or are recommendations for actions based on what we do know.

TRAINING

Optimizing Long-Term Retention and Transfer

Training procedures are typically evaluated, explicitly or implicitly, by how
rapidly they bring the learner to some criterion level of performance.
Performance during training, however, is often a poor index of the learner's level
of learning and understanding. Training programs should be evaluated not by
performance during training but, rather, by the extent to which those programs
support the learner's long-term post-training performance in real-world contexts.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 13

Measuring Learning and Performance Two important dimensions of

posttraining performance are the ability to resist forgetting and interference over
periods of disuse of a given skill and the ability to generalize training to contexts
and tasks that differ in their surface characteristics from the training contexts or
tasks. Depending on the relative priorities given to those two dimensions of
posttraining performance, the optimal package of training components will differ
somewhat. One general principle, however, is that tests of a learner's progress
during training should, as much as possible, measure performance as it will be
measured on the posttraining task(s) in the posttraining setting(s).
Retention Given posttraining tasks and conditions that are identical or
similar to the training tasks and conditions, posttraining performance is enhanced
as the level of original learning is increased. That level can be increased by
putting greater demands on the learner—making the criterion of mastery more
difficult, for example, or requiring supplementary (postmastery) practice after the
criterion has been reached. Introducing variations in the conditions and
sequencing of practice, the immediate consequence of which is to degrade
performance, may be a particularly promising way to increase the level of
original learning, and, hence, posttraining retention.
Skills that demand little attention or effort to perform are regarded as
automatic; the more automatic a given skill, the higher the likelihood that the
skill can be retained over nonuse periods without refresher training. Certain types
of procedural tasks, however, tend to be easily forgotten, especially when their
components have a low degree of internal organization or cohesiveness. The rate
of forgetting of procedural tasks is a function of the number of steps needed to
perform the task, and the steps most likely to be forgotten are those not cued by
the equipment, environment, or preceding steps.
Several instructional strategies to enhance the retention and transfer of
procedural tasks can be identified: distributing rather than massing practice time;
relating the knowledge to be learned to the relevant knowledge learners already
have in memory; teaching techniques (e.g., mnemonics) that learners can use to
provide their own elaborations; having the training regimen require repeated use
of the knowledge to be learned; and providing for and encouraging the use and
elaboration of acquired knowledge and skill during nonuse periods. In general, a
learner should be an active participant, not a passive observer, during the training
process.
However well designed the initial training, refresher training may still be
needed during prolonged posttraining periods of disuse in order to maintain a
given level of knowledge and skill. Refresher training can, however, become less
frequent over time, and the training needs of

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 14

retrainees are also different in kind from those of new trainees; relatively
efficient, cost-effective techniques can be used to maintain a given level of
original learning in retrainees.
Transfer of Training In general, the similarity of goals and cognitive
processing between training and transfer tasks is a critical factor in enhancing
transfer. The learner, therefore, should be challenged by means of manipulation
of practice variables, such as feedback, contextual (or intratask) interference, and
number and variability of examples. These manipulations, which may impair
performance in the short term, not only help the learner to process the learning
task more deeply, but suggest appropriate processes for transfer, particularly to
related but distinct posttraining tasks.

Modeling Expertise
As an instructional method, the modeling of complex cognitive skills poses
special problems. The observable behavior of an expert reveals little of the
expert's underlying cognitive processes. By observing an expert, a student can
learn a set of executable actions that are linked to a corresponding set of specific
conditions. But such learning does not typically result in the ability to generalize
beyond those specific conditions or to understand the principles behind the
actions.
It is widely recognized that instruction should proceed by integrating new
knowledge with old knowledge, but eliciting and representing the knowledge of
the tutor and the student are difficult problems. However, improved methods of
eliciting knowledge from experts and characterizing the present state of a learner
may make a promising training approach for modeling expertise, especially in
contexts in which a computer can be used as an interactive tool. New learning
techniques that involve active participation by a learner, such as self-
explanations, self-questioning, and self-monitoring, are promising avenues for
further research and may even be candidates for experimental programs at this
time.
The use of computers to deliver instruction, as well as to diagnose student
progress, is an important technological advance in and out of the classroom. To
be maximally effective, however, a training program must include a sophisticated
model of the student, which permits a match between the computer's
“understanding” and the student's understanding. Such a match makes possible
the tailoring of the individualized branching, diagnosis, and correction of
misconceptions by each student.

Developing Careers
Career Planning Despite the widespread popularity of many career

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 15

counseling techniques, which include self-assessment instruments, the decisions

to use them are rarely based on research results attesting to their effectiveness.
The committee recommends that such decisions be made within the context of a
planned, systematic, and organization-wide approach to career development, for
the Army as well as any other large, complex organization. In addition to such
career planning, evaluations should be made of the cost-effectiveness of
alternative career intervention activities with regard to the timing of the
intervention and the methods used by the intervenors.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator At this time there is not sufficient,
well-designed research to justify the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) in career counseling programs. Much of the current evidence is based on
inadequate methodologies. Better evaluation studies, conducted according to
rigorous methodological standards, are recommended. One type of evaluation
would compare “successful” and “unsuccessful” careers over the long term.
Positive results obtained from these studies, if replicated with different samples,
could justify use of this instrument in career counseling programs. Other self-
assessment instruments currently in use or contemplated for use in counseling
programs should also be subjected to the same rigorous evaluation.
Research on the effects of guided discussion, such as the discussions held on
feedback from the MBTI or other self-assessment instruments, is recommended.
Such research should distinguish between subjective reactions to the experience
and observed effects on subsequent actions and career performance.

ALTERING MENTAL STATES

Subliminal Self-Help
The committee's review of the available research literature leads to our
conclusion that, at this time, there is neither theoretical foundation nor
experimental evidence to support claims that subliminal self-help tapes enhance
human performance. Several key considerations underlie this conclusion.
Although recent research suggests that stimuli perceived in the absence of
conscious awareness may have short-term effects on the performance of relatively
simple tasks under controlled laboratory conditions (such as color naming or
lexical decision), this research cannot be construed as evidence that long-term
changes in complex actions, cognitions, or emotions—such as smoking, self-
confidence, or depression—can be effected through exposure to subliminal
suggestions under such varied real-life circumstances as reading, relaxing, or
even sleeping.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 16

Some experiments have found that some commercially available self-help

audiotapes contain masked messages that are both subjectively imperceptible and
objectively undetectable; as such, these tapes do not meet the minimum stimulus
condition for demonstrating subliminal perception. Although some self-help
audiotapes now available on the marketplace may satisfy this minimum
condition, the responsibility for identifying those products should rest, at least
initially, with their proponents. If detectable messages are found, controlled
studies of their effects could be undertaken.
Several sociopsychological phenomena, including effort justification and
expectancy or placebo effects, may contribute to an erroneous judgment that
self-help products are effective, even in the absence of any actual improvements
in emotion, appearance, attitude, or any other physical or psychological quality.

Meditation
In scientifically controlled studies, meditation does not reduce arousal any
more than does simply resting quietly. In many studies, the combined use of
various relaxation-training techniques precludes attributing positive effects to
meditation by itself. Lifestyle changes to reduce conflict are also apparently
instrumental, a sensible enough conclusion and one that is consistent with the
growing recognition that successful interventions must usually be multifaceted.
The philosophical context for most meditation practices is important. It may
be that meditation and relaxation—including perhaps relaxation achieved with
certain forms of biofeedback—effect cognitive change, such as an enhanced
sense of self-efficacy and a belief that one can control his or her stress reactions.
A particular challenge to those who advocate meditation is whether benefits
generalize to everyday situations or to conditions of special challenge. Does the
person take time out during the day to meditate, or is there some more enduring,
systemic reduction in arousal level that does not require conscious attention to
practice? Perhaps changes are brought about by the person's lowered reactivity to
challenge, and these positive social-environmental shifts present the individual
with a less stressful environment. We do not believe that data exist to answer this
question.
The highly publicized feats of some yogis who can remain buried for many
hours without suffocating are probably due to confidence in their ability to slow
their respiration rate, as well as faith that they can survive the ordeal if only they
do not panic. Consistent with findings from the committee's earlier report,
perceived control and predictability serve to reduce anxiety.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 17

The assertion that the proper application of Kundalini Yoga can help develop
“the soldier-saint” in whom is instilled the desire and superhuman ability to excel
in the art of war is not supported by scientific evidence.

Managing Pain
Research on pain control suggests that people can be taught
nonpharmacological ways to cope with physical pain. Central to the current
understanding of pain is the role of cognitive factors. A person's understanding of
the physiological events that underlie pain can have a profound effect on whether
he or she actually experiences pain.
Procedures known to be useful for reducing stress—such as relaxation,
providing information about what to expect, and enhancing a person's sense of
control—also reduce pain because stress increases a person's experience of pain.
Distraction is also an effective strategy for coping with pain. And suggestions
given under hypnosis can help people cope with pain, for example, imagining
that an affected limb is not really a part of them. Chronic pain is best managed by
identifying and controlling psychological perpetuating factors. In most cases this
would involve combining pure behavior-learning approaches with other
cognitive-behavioral and relaxation interventions.

Hiding and Detecting Deception

A number of nonverbal behaviors have been found to be associated with
deception. Particularly revealing are body movements and tone of voice changes,
although a number of other behaviors have also been shown to be indicators of
deception in certain situations. Nonverbal behaviors reflect feelings or emotions
more directly than they reflect specific intentions to deceive. Emotions—
psychological states—can be considered as intervening variables, relating to
observed behaviors and to inferred intentions.
Motivated liars are easier to detect than nonmotivated liars. When
emotionality is high, as in the case of tasks with high stakes associated with
outcomes, nonverbal behaviors can be especially revealing. The revealing
behaviors are likely to be those in the liar's unattended channels, which are
“leaked” as a result of behavioral inhibition or rigidity.
Detectors, both amateurs and experts, are generally inaccurate despite high
levels of confidence in their judgments. Neither feedback nor enhanced
suspiciousness seems to improve accuracy. However, training detectors and
providing them with a plan for processing information about relevant cues does
seem to increase accuracy of detection.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 18

Techniques developed for laboratory research are useful in studying

deception. They provide a structured and systematic approach to analysis
germane to detecting deception in a variety of situations. The techniques are
especially useful to an analyst who has access to videotaped interactions or who
can interact with a subject over long periods of time. The videotaped exchanges
can be replayed for details easily overlooked in the course of an ongoing
conversation. They can also be used to train individuals to code nonverbal
behavior for leakage clues.

A Broad Concept of Deception

Detection of deception depends on leaked cues, which in turn depend on the
psychological state of the deceiver, that is, whether it reflects guilt. Detection of
deception would be improved if one could anticipate the sorts of scenarios that
constitute social transgression or a guilt-producing state for individuals. Although
some components of emotional expression may be universal, many other
expressions are influenced by culture and context. Research on the folk
psychology of deception and on the prototypical structure of lying provide
examples of methods for assessing perceptions of socially unacceptable
deceptions within cultural groups. With suitable refinements, these methods can
be used to discover those scenarios and deceptive acts that might induce leakage
for particular cultures and individuals.

PERFORMING

Optimizing Individual Performance

A large literature in sports psychology reports progress in identifying the
psychological and physiological conditions for improved performance on a wide
variety of tasks. Numerous experiments provide some basis for distinguishing
between effective and ineffective preperformance interventions.
Mental Health and Athletic Success The mental health model has
produced inconsistent results in differentiating successful and less successful
athletes in terms of individual mood scales. However, measures of global mood
have been effective in distinguishing when athletes are experiencing a
psychologically unhealthy, overtrained state.
Physical Versus Mental Practice If the goal is to maximize performance in
the shortest amount of time, physical practice is superior to mental practice.
However, if nonphysical practice time is available or if a

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 19

person cannot physically practice, then the small effects due to mental practice
can be useful for facilitating performance and for better retention.
Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions The effects of cognitive-behavioral
interventions—such as relaxation, imagery, mental preparation strategies, skill
modeling, and direct attempts to alter cognition—are small to moderate. They
will be enhanced if the treatments emphasize: multiple components (e.g.,
relaxation, modeling, imagery, cognitive restructuring); direct administration by
an investigator or therapist (rather than a tape); many sessions; people who have
concentration problems; and tasks that can be objectively scored.
Preperformance Preparation In skills for which the environmental
conditions are constant (e.g., archery), an individually designed preperformance
routine with multiple components (i.e, preparation rituals) has been shown to
facilitate performance. In sports that involve aiming (e.g., rifle shooting), better
performers have a greater cardiac deceleration within 3-5 seconds of executing a
motor response, and better performances are associated with a moderate increase
above baseline in alpha activity in the left hemisphere of the brain with little or no
change in the right hemisphere. However, too great an increase in left hemisphere
alpha is associated with worse shots. Such electrophysiological patterns as heart
rate deceleration and EEG asymmetries, which are related to performance, can be
used during the preparatory period (3-5 seconds before response execution) to
assist in determining the efficacy of preperformance routines.
Exercise and Stress Evidence shows that aerobic exercise results in quicker
recovery from psychosocial stressors than the absence of such exercise.
Neuroscience and Peak Performance Further understanding of the bases
for performance is likely to come from ongoing research in neuroscience and on
“peak performance.” Recent neuroscientific studies using imaging techniques
have shown that even simple motor processes have complex neurophysiological
correlates. Research on high performance behavior has made progress in
identifying the affective, attentional, and cognitive states associated with such
behavior.

Enhancing Team Performance

Many problems and issues in team performance are potentially answerable
by research, but research on group structure and function, once

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 20

a mainstay in social psychology, is not now a major focus of the work.

Moreover, most of these studies are of unstratified groups, making them less
relevant for real-world problems involving stratified groups and command
structures.
Research on group problem solving indicates that teams perform at
suboptimal levels. While a number of techniques (e.g., the Delphi technique,
nominal group technique) have been used to improve the group process and
outcomes, few of these interventions have been evaluated systematically.
The research on group processes has focused in recent years on decision
making with an emphasis on jury-like studies. Some of this is directly relevant to
group training, but it leaves unaddressed many of the group performance
questions.
The strategy of studying real groups in actual working conditions has
contributed to the understanding of the groups studied, but the findings have
proven difficult to generalize.
Some of the difficulties of experimentation on group performance are
logistic. It is difficult to find a suitable number of comparable groups that remain
stable over time to compare the effects of experimental differences on their
training and performance. Large numbers of comparable groups do exist in the
Army and other military services, and they provide the possible experimental
subjects and conditions for effective study of team training, decision making, and
performance. Since the military recruits young people who are comparable to the
entering U.S. labor force, the results of such group studies may also have
applicability to industrial and commercial settings.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

21

PART II
Training

THIS PART CONSIDERS A NUMBER OF ISSUES related to training for optimizing

performance over the short and long term. Chapter 3 addresses basic issues of
learning from the standpoint of skill acquisition, retention, and transfer, with an
emphasis on the durability and flexibility of posttraining performance. Chapter 4
addresses the learning strategy of modeling expert performance. These issues
benefit from active research traditions that have resulted in large literatures from
which conclusions can be drawn. Much of the relevant research is summarized in
these chapters.
A somewhat different approach is taken in Chapter 5, in which training is
considered in relation to the development of careers over the long term. These
issues benefit from recent work done on performance in organizations: that
literature is used as a basis for the framework proposed as a guide for research
and development activities in the Army and related organizations.
The usefulness of any training program depends on whether the skills
acquired can be used in other settings and long after the training experience. The
many variables that influence retention and transfer of skills are discussed in
Chapter 3. With regard to retention, considerations include the original level of
learning, task organization, and the time since training. With regard to transfer,
key issues are the similarities between training and transfer tasks and conditions
and how knowledge is used in the training and transfer situations.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

22

A new topic receiving attention by learning psychologists is the modeling of

expert performance. The committee's decision to consider this topic resulted from
its earlier work on modeling in the areas of motor skills and influence strategies.
The treatment of modeling in Chapter 4 deals primarily with complex cognitive
skills. It is apparent that the kinds of direct modeling or imitation approaches that
may work for acquiring relatively simple skills are not relevant for more complex
performances. The discussion in this chapter calls attention to such considerations
as the nature of experts' knowledge, ways to effectively extract that knowledge,
and ways to impart it to the learner.
As noted, the last chapter in this part deals with career development. In this
chapter we propose a systematic approach to issues of career development, and
we evaluate widely used self-assessment instruments believed to contribute to
enhanced performance. The approach consists of a set of propositions, based on
research findings, that can be implemented in current programs. The evaluation
focuses primarily on the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING LONG-TERM RETENTION AND TRANSFER 23

3
Optimizing Long-Term Retention and
Transfer

This chapter considers training conditions that do or do not facilitate

posttraining performance. We focus on two aspects of posttraining performance:
its durability (long-term retention), that is, the extent to which a training program
yields a level of learning that supports performance after long periods of disuse;
and its flexibility (transfer), that is, the extent to which a training program
prepares a learner to perform under real-world conditions that may differ from
those present during training. Our primary concerns are the training of adults
rather than children and the training of cognitive-motor procedural skills, such as
programming a computer, repairing a mechanical or electronic device, hitting a
serve in tennis, parachuting out of an airplane, or receiving and transmitting
Morse Code, rather than on classroom learning.
Focusing on the training of adults and on procedural tasks helps to limit the
scope of this chapter, but covering all aspects of training so defined in one
chapter is still prohibitive; a broader view is provided in the recent book by Farr
(1987). Among the issues we do not address are individual differences among
learners, instructor variables, such as motivating trainees and improving
instructor-trainee rapport, and technological innovations, such as computer-based
instruction and the use of simulators; those issues are addressed in recent reviews
by Montague (1988) and Walberg (1990), as well as in Farr (1987). We also do
not focus on how the individual components of complex tasks should be
integrated. (Chapter 4 takes a broader view of complex cognitive tasks and
includes a discussion of some of the ways computers can assist training.) Even
with our mission defined more narrowly, the relevant

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING LONG-TERM RETENTION AND TRANSFER 24

literature deriving from basic and applied research in education, psychology,

cognitive science, physical education, and sports psychology is enormous: thus,
the references we cite should be viewed as representative, not exhaustive.
Procedural knowledge is now commonly distinguished from declarative
knowledge (Winograd, 1975). Declarative knowledge is knowledge of facts or
static information (e.g., in what year did Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs?), and it, in
turn, is typically subdivided into episodic and semantic knowledge: episodic
knowledge is context dependent, such as knowing what you ate for lunch today;
semantic knowledge is independent of context, such as knowing what Europeans
typically eat for breakfast (see e.g., Tulving, 1985).
Procedural knowledge is knowing how to execute the procedures necessary
to perform a given task. Procedural knowledge underlies cognitive and motor
skills (many of them automated), such as how to change a flat tire on a car, use a
typewriter by touch, operate a computer, disassemble and reassemble a rifle, ride a
bicycle, or play a game. Skills are acquired mainly by doing or practice and are
not learned quickly. Retention of skills, or the lack thereof, is typically measured
by the extent to which they can be performed, rather than by the extent to which
they can be “recalled” per se. In fact, at high levels of skill, in which many of the
procedural components of a skill become automatic, people become unable to
describe in any detail what procedures they are carrying out in what order. A
person may have to resort to consciously observing his or her own behavior, for
example, to tell a friend how to ski or operate a standard-transmission
automobile.
It seems obvious that the major goal of any training program is to prepare
trainees to perform effectively on a posttraining task in a real-world setting;
achieving that goal, however, is complicated by several factors. First, what is
observed by those responsible for training programs is, typically, the
performances of trainees during the training process itself. Such performance is a
highly imperfect index of the kind of learning, comprehension, or understanding
that will sustain performance of the skill or knowledge over periods of disuse.
Someone who meets high standards of performance at the end of training may
fail to perform adequately some months later. Acquisition of a given skill during
training also does not provide evidence that the learner will be able to perform in
contexts that differ from the training context or on altered versions of the training
task that may arise in real-world settings. The term “context” includes the task,
practice conditions, and cognitive processing used by a trainee.
The crux of the problem is that learning and performance are not the same.
As we indicate at several points in this chapter, procedures that

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OPTIMIZING LONG-TERM RETENTION AND TRANSFER 25

enhance performance during training may or may not enhance long-term retention
and transfer to altered contexts; conversely, procedures that introduce difficulties
for the learner and impair performance during training may foster durable and
flexible posttraining skills (for some examples, see Schmidt and Bjork, 1992). In
short, the goal is to have training programs that optimize learning—some
relatively permanent change in the capacity for responding—but what is observed
during training is performance localized in a given place and time. At a later
time, in another place, the learner may perform quite differently and that
performance is often at an inadequate level. The performance observed during
training may be mediated by rote memory or cues specific to the training
procedure rather than being indicative of any substantial learning or
understanding.
This problem is aggravated in training settings in which those who are
responsible for training do not see the posttraining performance of the individuals
they have trained. In such a setting, the instructor's judgment as to the efficacy of
different training procedures may be governed entirely by the tacit assumption
that what yields high performance during training will yield high retention and
transfer after training. In any organization in which the people responsible for the
maintenance of critical skills and knowledge (refresher training, retraining, and so
forth) are not the same people who are responsible for initial training—the
military is such an organization—this inferential problem is going to be
particularly troublesome.

LONG-TERM RETENTION
When one assesses posttraining performance on some task, the time interval
from the end of training to the performance “test” can be varied, the task can be
the same or an altered version of the training task, and the situational context can
be similar to or different from the training context. Thus, someone trained to
repair a certain type of pump in a nuclear power plant might attempt the first such
actual repair many weeks or months after being trained, the pump may differ in
certain respects from those encountered in training, and the repair may need to be
executed under conditions of heat or other pressure that was not present during
training. It is common to speak of retention when performance on the actual
training task is assessed under posttraining conditions that are essentially the
same as the training conditions. The term transfer is used when the posttraining
task or setting differs from the training task or setting. For convenience, and to be
compatible with the literature, we tend to follow that usage, but it is important to
emphasize that retention so defined is a special case of transfer. That is, since the

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posttraining context will never match exactly the training context—if for no other
reason than that the physical, emotional, and mental state of the learner will not
be exactly the same—a test of retention can be viewed as a test of the transfer of
training to contexts that appear to match the training context.
In attempting to make our review compatible with the literature, in which the
learning-performance distinction is often blurred or forgotten by researchers, we
often need to speak of the level of “learning” achieved during training when level
of performance would be the more correct expression. Terms such as “original
learning” and “overlearning” are too common for us to avoid. In the next section
particularly, when we discuss retention and transfer as a function of the level of
original learning, we have tried to restrict our coverage to research situations in
which it can be generally assumed that the performance levels measured as
evidence of differing levels of learning do, indeed, denote just that. In later
sections we deal with training situations in which performance during training is a
poor measure of the level of learning achieved.

Original Learning
There is considerable agreement that the long-term retention of a task can be
improved by increasing the level of original learning or mastery (e.g., Annett,
1979; Farr, 1987; Gardlin and Sitterley, 1972; Hagman and Rose, 1983; Hurlock
and Montague, 1982; Naylor and Briggs, 1961; Schendel et al., 1978; Prophet,
1976). Indeed, the level of original learning for a task is the best single predictor
of long-term retention for any given retention interval. Thus, any variable that can
help trainees achieve a higher level of original learning or mastery of a task is
capable of enhancing its retention (Hurlock and Montague, 1982).
Most often, the training variable manipulated is the amount of practice on a
task. Typically, this manipulation is accomplished by making the criterion of
mastery more difficult to achieve so that more practice is needed to achieve the
criterion. The additional practice needed to achieve the more difficult criterion
produces a higher level of original learning, which enhances retention. For
example, suppose a basketball coach is training young, novice players to shoot
free throws (foul shots). He or she decides that all of the players should be able to
make 25 out of 50 shots attempted by the end of 8 weeks of training, which is a
reasonable criterion of mastery. But the coach could also make the criterion of
mastery more difficult to achieve, requiring that the players be able to make 35
out of 50 shots, or, alternatively, that the players be able to make 25 out of 50
shots under more difficult conditions (after wind sprints, with simulated crowd
noise, at alternate baskets, and so forth).

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In either case, more practice would be needed to achieve the more difficult
criterion, but the additional practice would produce a higher level of original
learning, which, in turn, should lead to greater retention.

Setting the Criterion of Mastery

Determining the appropriate level of original learning of a task that trainees
must acquire in order to ensure the desired level of retention is not easy. How the
level is selected—that is, how it is defined and assessed in terms of when the
criterion of mastery is satisfactorily achieved—is quite arbitrary. Typically, the
level is measured in terms of trials or time taken or number of errors committed
until the criterion of mastery has been achieved. In most of the studies the
committee reviewed, the criterion has been set either at a minimal mastery level,
such as the first errorless performance trial, or at somewhat more than minimal
level: for example, the three successive errorless trials required by Rigg and Gray
(1981) in their research on U.S. Army enlisted personnel learning a procedural
task. More recently, Jones (1985) suggested another way to determine when the
level of original learning is satisfactorily achieved. He recommended that in
addition to selecting some arbitrary criterion of mastery, the acquisition curve be
used to determine when performance has stabilized at or above the criterion
level. When the slope of the acquisition curve has begun to level off above the
criterion level, learning would be considered complete.

Automaticity
The level of original learning can also be assessed in terms of the degree of
automaticity of performance by using a dual-task paradigm, in which a secondary
task is given to trainees to sample their spare cognitive capacity while they are
learning the primary task (Shiffrin and Schneider, 1977; Schneider and Shiffrin,
1977; Schneider et al., 1984). An acceptable degree of automaticity and, hence,
level of original learning, is the point at which neither the primary nor secondary
task causes a performance decrement on the other. Although the dual-task
paradigm is an acceptable method of assessing automaticity, it is not without its
problems (see, e.g., Fendrich et al., 1988; Jonides et al., 1985). Theoretically,
skills that require only a minimum of attention and cognitive capacity to perform
are either completely or partly automatic, whereas skills that require cognitive
resources and effort involve controlled processes. Schneider et al. (1984) define
an automatic process as one that does not make use of general cognitive
resources. In other words, capacity reductions do not influence automatic
processing. Moreover, an

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automatic process is not subject to conscious control and, thus, can be executed in
response to relevant external stimuli to which little attention is paid.
Whether or not a skill is classified as automatic or controlled depends largely
on the level of original learning. Many skills require controlled processes early in
learning, but the processes become automatic with extensive practice and
especially so if that practice contains a high degree of consistency. Practice
consistency means that a trainee makes the same response each time a certain
stimulus or class of stimuli is presented. The assumed explanation for this
phenomena is that retention of a skill depends heavily on the extent to which a
skill is automatic: that is, it can be performed without conscious awareness. The
more automatic the skill, the greater the chance that the skill will be retained over
nonuse periods without refresher training or rehearsal. It is important to note,
however, that the automated parts of a skill that are acquired through practice
(e.g., speed in soldering a joint) are expected to deteriorate during nonuse
periods, while the automated parts of a skill that are less dependent on practice
(e.g., encoding of temporal or spatial information) are not. Thus, for designing a
skill maintenance program, more emphasis should be placed on the automated
parts of the skill that are acquired through practice.

Overlearning
Regardless of the criterion of mastery selected for original learning, one way
to enhance retention is to provide supplementary practice on a task after the
criterion is achieved. In the previous basketball example, for instance, the coach
could have the players continue to practice freethrow shooting even though they
have achieved the criterion of making 35 out of 50 shots. This method may be
interpreted as postmastery learning and is usually referred to in the literature as
overlearning. Level of overlearning is usually expressed as simply the number of
practice trials that trainees perform after the criterion of mastery has been
achieved, or it is expressed in percentage terms—50 percent overlearning, for
example, means that trainees receive half again the number of trials that they took
to achieve the mastery criterion. The arbitrary nature of mastery and overlearning
criteria can make it difficult to do certain comparisons across studies. A trial that
is part of mastery for one study can be part of overlearning for another study. It
depends on how one defines when original learning is complete, how one
quantifies the level of original learning or mastery, and how one defines the level
of overlearning.
Those complications notwithstanding, it is clear that retention is better for
overlearned tasks (e.g., Loftus, 1985; Schendel and Hagman,

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1982; Slamecka and McElree, 1983). For enhancing retention, when to introduce
the supplementary trials does not appear to be a critical factor; the level of
overlearning is far more important than the time at which the supplementary trials
are introduced (Schendel and Hagman, 1982). The literature also reveals,
however, that providing overlearning trials reaches a point of diminishing returns
(e.g., Bell, 1950; McGeoch and Irion, 1952; Melnick, 1971). In other words,
increasing the number of overlearning trials may not produce proportionate
increases in retention. Thus, although 100 percent overlearning may result in
better retention than 50 percent, the additional gain that occurs may not be worth
the additional time and practice.

Task Cohesion and Organization

In the literature on task retention, a given task is often classified as a discrete
motor task, a continuous motor task, a procedural task, or a verbal task. Discrete
tasks are characterized by a clearly defined beginning and end, such as
responding to a signal by pressing a lever or saying a word. Continuous motor
tasks require responding to information presented continuously—such as driving
a car, which is a familiar example of a tracking task. Procedural tasks consist of a
particular sequence of operations executed in the same way each time that the
task is performed, such as disassembling and reassembling a rifle. Verbal tasks
involve materials ranging from letters to nonsense syllables to words to
meaningful prose, such as doing a crossword puzzle.
Considerable attention has been devoted in training to procedural tasks,
probably because they are so easily forgotten and are common in almost all work
situations. Such tasks may vary on several dimensions, such as the number of
steps they contain, the degree to which performing one step cues another, the
freedom to vary from a fixed sequence, the extent of planning required to execute
the task, and the number of decision points. Shields et al. (1979) found that the
rate of forgetting for a procedural task is predominantly a function of the number
of steps needed to perform the task. Moreover, they found that what tended to be
forgotten most were the steps not cued by equipment or by the preceding steps.
Consistent with such an argument, there is consensus in the literature that
continuous motor tasks are better remembered than discrete or procedural tasks
mainly because the former have a higher degree of inherent organization. Prophet
(1976) proposed that the poor retention exhibited for certain procedural tasks—
such as instrument flying—was due primarily to a low degree of internal
organization or cohesiveness. Thus, regardless of the type of task, it appears that
it is the degree of organization

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or cohesiveness of the task that is a principal determinant of the level of original

learning that is achieved and the amount that is retained in the long term (e.g.,
Hagman and Rose, 1983; Hurlock and Montague, 1982; Prophet, 1976; Schendel
et al., 1978).

Enhancing Retention

Distribution of Practice
We have focused thus far on amount of practice during training, and have
assumed that the level of performance achieved during training is a reasonable
index of the level of learning achieved. For a fixed amount of practice, however,
learning (as measured by a later retention test) depends on the temporal
distribution of practice, and the nature of that dependency illustrates that
performance during training is an unreliable indicator of learning. In general,
massing of practice on some component of the to-be-learned task produces better
performance in the short term (e.g., during training) but much poorer
performance in the long term than does spacing of practice. In some cases,
massed practice yields long-term recall performance less than one-half the level
that results from spaced practice, and two massed practices are often not
appreciably better than a single study trial (see, e.g., Glenberg, 1979; Glenberg
and Lehmann, 1980; Melton, 1970; and Rothkopf and Coke, 1966).
The so-called spacing effect—that practice sessions spaced in time are
superior to massed practices in terms of long-term retention—is one of the most
reliable phenomena in human experimental psychology. The effect is robust and
appears to hold for verbal materials of all types and for motor skills (for reviews,
see Crowder, 1976; Dempster, 1990; Lee and Genovese, 1988). A recent
indication of how durable the advantages of spacing may be across truly long
posttraining intervals was reported by Bahrick and Phelps (1987). They tested
subjects' recall of English-Spanish word pairs 8 years after the original training
phase. During the training phase, successive practice sessions were separated by
30 days, 1 day, or 0 days. The level of retention was highest for the 30-day
spacing of study sessions, next highest for the 1-day spacing, and lowest for the
0-day spacing, with performance for those in the 30-day condition more than
twice that for those in the 0-day condition.
Given the benefits of spaced practice and the fact that those benefits have
been known to researchers since the beginning of controlled research on human
memory (Ebbinghaus, 1913), one would expect that spaced repetition would be a
major component of modern programs of training and instruction. The fact that
this not seem to be the case is

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something of a puzzle (see Bjork, 1979; Dempster, 1990). Part of the solution to
that puzzle, of course, may be a point we have already stressed: during the
training process itself, spaced practice may appear inferior to massed practice.
Another factor in the apparent neglect of scientific findings on distribution
of practice by those responsible for the design of training programs is time
pressure: massed sessions take less total time than do spaced sessions. A study by
Baddeley and Longman (1978), carried out for the British Post Office, illustrates
the point. Given a new sorting system, which required postal workers to enter
postcodes into a sorting machine using a standard typewriter keyboard, a large
number of postal workers needed to be taught to type in a relatively short period
of time. Baddeley and Longman examined four different training schedules,
ranging from 1 hour of practice per day (spaced) to 4 hours of practice per day
(massed). In terms of the learning curve—a plot of mean keystrokes per minute
as a function of hours of practice—spaced practice was far more efficient than
massed practice. To reach any given level of performance, however, it took the
1-hour-per-day group many more days than it took the 4-hours-per-day group,
and the authors report that the former group was the least satisfied because the
members felt they were falling behind the groups that were getting more practice
per day. Thus, spaced practice produced much more efficient learning as a
function of time on task, but took more days, which could certainly be a negative
factor from a management standpoint.

Fostering Understanding
Just as the organization or cohesiveness of the components of a task makes
it easier to learn and remember, so too does the organizing influence of
understanding (Horton and Mills, 1984; Wertheim, 1985; Wetzel et al., 1983). In a
story, independent or vaguely related occurrences are similar to steps of a
procedural task that are not logically arranged and, hence, do not signal each
other. When relevant organizing information is provided before reading a
fragmented story, this information supplies a coherent structure within which to
interpret more effectively the exact meaning of the story (Owens et al., 1979).
Moreover, when this structure is also compatible with a trainee's general
knowledge of the world, recall is enhanced (Morris et al., 1979).
There is considerable evidence suggesting that long-term retention of
procedural tasks that are based on complex rules or principles can be enhanced by
augmenting instruction with explanations or information designed to increase a
learner's understanding of the to-be-learned tasks (Gentner, 1980, 1982; Smith
and Goodman, 1984; Tourangeau and Sternberg,

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1982; Kieras, 1981; Sturges et al., 1981). Although researchers differ to some
extent on how they define explanations, it seems useful to categorize them as
linear, structural, and functional (Stevens and Steinberg, 1981; Smith and
Goodman, 1984). Linear explanations tell a trainee what to do—that is, what
steps to follow and in what order. Structural explanations clarify how or why
different task components belong together. Functional explanations inform the
trainee about the cause-and-effect relationships among task components. In
general, linear and structural explanations are used for static tasks, such as
assembling a piece of equipment; functional explanations are used for dynamic
tasks, such as operating a piece of equipment. In an examination of some of the
literature dealing with the long-term retention of conceptual information and
procedures inherent in expository prose as a function of structural explanations,
Konoske and Ellis (1985:13) conclude that effective structural explanations
“should include spatial and component-part information . . . as well as . . . goal
statements. In addition, structural information should be communicated using
text, schematics, graphs and illustrations, whenever possible.”
In another study, Kieras and Boviar (1984) provided subjects in an
experimental group with a “mental model” functional explanation of a new
device that they were required to learn to operate: a mental model is an internal
conceptual structure that corresponds to some aspect of the world (see, e.g.,
Gentner and Stevens, 1983). The subjects in the control group were not provided
with any explanation; they had to learn the procedures solely by memorizing
them. The researchers found that the functional model was more effective for
enhancing retention one week after original learning than was learning by rote.
They explained the superiority of the functional model by claiming that it was
more pertinent to the operation of the device and could be used to cue operational
procedures that might not otherwise have been retained. This finding and
explanation supports Farr's (1987) position that the long-term retention of
procedural knowledge and skills can be greatly enhanced if trainees understand
why tasks must be performed in a particular order and way; the relationship of the
parts to the whole task; and how new task information is related to what is already
known. Farr (1987:78) claims:
Understanding enables the trainee to (a) furnish himself with cues to help
retrieval; (b) recognize the relationship of externally provided or system-provided
cues to the sought-for-memory; and/or (c) rebuild or regenerate what was
apparently forgotten by capitalizing on the conceptual/ideational scaffolding
supplied by the understanding. Understanding also provides organizational
coherence, thereby chunking and integrating the information into fewer
knowledge-representation/retrieval structures, and decreasing the memory
burden.

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Qualitative explanations, whether direct or analogical, can enhance retention

by functioning as an instructional strategy to help a learner establish a
meaningful relationship between new information and what is already known and
understood. Evidence supporting this approach is provided by Mayer (1975), who
used linear and structural explanations on a computer to enhance the learning and
retention of software programming. There is considerable evidence to suggest
that qualitative explanations help a learner develop models for making new
knowledge fit more meaningfully into his or her existing knowledge structures by
relating the new knowledge or skill to what has been previously learned and
understood. The resulting effect is that the learning and retention of principle- and
rule-based complex tasks are enhanced (Gentner, 1980, 1982; Kieras, 1981;
Sturges et al., 1981; Tourangeau and Sternberg, 1982).
In summary, qualitative explanations that promote understanding of a to-
be-learned task are effective for enhancing retention, presumably because they
enable a trainee to reach a higher level of original learning. (The role of such
explanations is discussed further in the next chapter as an important part of
training techniques that use the expert as a model to guide the trainee.)

Involving the Learner

An important generalization that emerges from several domains of basic and
applied research is that long-term retention is enhanced when a learner is an
active participant rather than a passive observer during the training process. The
inefficiency of humans as passive receivers of information reflects a fundamental
property of human memory: a person does not behave like a simple recording
apparatus. The storage of new information is a matter of actively interpreting that
new information is terms of what is already known, and the reliable retrieval of
information from memory requires practicing the retrieval process. Several kinds
of research support this generalization.
Cooperative Learning, Peer Teaching, and Related Techniques In the
field of education there is abundant evidence that participation by students
accomplishes more learning than presentations by instructors. Cooperative
learning procedures—in which small groups of students work together on a
common problem or project—have been shown to enhance later performance
(see, e.g., Johnson et al., 1981; Slavin, 1983) as do peer teaching, proctoring, and
coaching programs, in which students participate in the teaching process on a
one-on-one or group level (see, e.g., Goldschmid and Goldschmid, 1976; Kulik
et al., 1980). In

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fact, the performance of both the givers and receivers of such student instruction
appears to profit from the interaction, and the attitudes of students about the
instructional process become more positive as well. In sum, cooperative learning
techniques, peer-teaching techniques, and all other such programs in which
students take an active role in their own learning lead to improved performance
(see, e.g., Rothkopf, 1981).
Practice on Procedural Tasks Overall, it is probably an understatement to
say that most training programs involve too much in the way of talking,
presenting, and demonstrating on the part of a trainer and too little in the way of
answering, producing, and practicing on the part of the trainee. Especially in the
case of procedural tasks, listening and watching are ineffective compared with
doing—although, of course, doing requires some initial level of learning. For
example, watching someone demonstrate how to use an oxygen mask or
inflatable lifevest or how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not good
preparation for executing those tasks when they are needed. Procedural skills
must be practiced and exercised (see, e.g., Schneider, 1985). With increasing
complexity of a task, a large amount of practice may be necessary to meet
criterion levels of skill, and, initially, components of the task may need to be
practiced separately.
The Effects of Generation The “generation effect” (Slamecka and Graf,
1978) refers to the fact that verbal information generated by subjects (learners) in
response to cues presented by an experimenter is better remembered at a later
time than is information presented for study. Generation effects have been
demonstrated with many types of verbal materials and with a variety of initial
cuing procedures. It has also been shown (e.g., Wittrock and Carter, 1975) that
subjects who generate their own organization of verbal materials (such as a
hierarchical grouping of related words) remember those materials better at a later
time than do subjects who are simply given such an organization. In general,
there is much to be said for the “Socratic method” of instruction, in which the
instructor's goal is to get the learner to produce answers and solutions.
Tests as Learning Events Related to the effects of generation is the finding
that the act of retrieving information presented earlier facilitates later retrieval of
that information (see, e.g., Bjork, 1975; Landauer and Bjork, 1978; Rea and
Modigliani, 1985). That is, an act of recall is itself a potent learning event—more
potent, in general, than is an opportunity to study the information in question.
From the standpoint of long-term retention, tests appear to play the important role
of reducing

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the forgetting that would otherwise take place. Landauer and Ainslie (1975), for
example, found that in a college-style technical course, performance on a repeated
final examination 1 year later was greatly facilitated by an intervening test with
that exam at 6 months. The group with the 6-month test showed virtually no
memory loss across the year (from the end-of-course final exam to the repeated
final exam 1 year later), and they performed at a much higher level on the 1-year
test than did the group with no intervening test.
Another virtue of tests is that they appear to trigger subsequent study
opportunities (e.g., Izawa, 1970). That is, more learning appears to take place on
the basis of information presented after a test of a learner's memory for that
information than takes place without such a test. One interpretation of such
results is that tests provide feedback to the learner—clarifying to some extent
what has been learned and what remains to be learned—which puts the learner in a
better position to take advantage of subsequent information.
The advantage of tests embedded in the training process may grow as the
posttraining retention interval gets longer. In contrasting the effects of prior study
and test trials, Hogan and Kintsch (1971) found that study trials were superior to
test trials in terms of performance at the end of the experimental session, but that
test trials were superior to study trials on a test of recall 48 hours later. Once
again, then, a condition that may appear to produce better performance during
training (in this instance, study trials) may not be optimal in terms of long-term
retention.

Refresher Training
Since the focus of this chapter is on original training and what can be done
therein to enhance long-term retention and transfer, a thorough discussion of an
important related matter—the kinds of posttraining interventions that are useful in
maintaining performance at a high level over time—is beyond its scope. In this
section, however, we do want to make clear that in many cases posttraining
refresher programs are necessary, whatever the program of initial training.
As a retention interval (i.e., nonuse period) increases, the absolute amount of
forgetting increases at a negatively accelerated rate (Annett, 1979; Gardlin and
Sitterley, 1972; Hagman and Rose, 1983; Hurlock and Montague, 1982; Naylor
and Briggs, 1961; Prophet, 1976; Schendel et al., 1978). Refresher learning,
practice, or rehearsal is typically needed during such nonuse periods to maintain a
given level of knowledge or skill. An important practical consideration, however,
is whether a relearning program is even feasible. If it is not, as in emergency
situations in which the originally learned knowledge or skill must be at a

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high enough level to ensure errorless performance in the first real-world

execution, then a more intensive refresher program is recommended.
Being able to predict how much forgetting is likely to occur over any given
posttraining retention interval is important for determining the refresher training,
practice, or rehearsal conditions needed for maintaining performance at an
acceptable level. Two approaches to predicting such forgetting have been
proposed. An algorithm used by Rigg and Gray (1981; also, Rigg, 1983), which
is based on mathematical learning theory, uses performance data from a trainee's
initial learning trial to predict the likely rate of forgetting. The approach seems
promising, but the empirical tests of the algorithm are too sketchy at present for
evaluating it. The algorithm developed by Rose et al. (1984, 1985) for procedural
tasks is based on the internal organization or cohesiveness of a given task. This
technique, referred to as user's decision aid, estimates how often refresher training
should be given to a unit of soldiers to maintain proficiency at a particular level.
Although this aid is a promising algorithmic technique for dealing with
procedural-task forgetting during nonuse periods, it is obviously more desirable to
protect against such forgetting in the first place, if possible, by implementing
conditions in training that lead to a high level of original learning and enhanced
retention.
The spacing of refresher training, practice, or rehearsal has been found to be
important for maintaining any given level of achieved knowledge or skill over
nonuse periods. Bahrick (1979) recommends that the spacing be at intervals
approximately equal to the expected nonuse interval separating successive
occasions when that knowledge or skill needs to be exercised. A related idea is
that novices in a given field should get rehearsals of a given skill at about the
same intervals that professionals in the field tend to need to exercise that skill.
An important practical point on refresher training is that the practice or
rehearsal needs of retrainees appear to be different from those of new trainees.
Relatively efficient, cost-effective techniques can be used to maintain a given
level of original learning or mastery during nonuse periods for retrainees. One
such technique is to substitute covert (imaginary) practice and symbolic rehearsal
for the conditions that were used in original training (Annett, 1979; Naylor and
Briggs, 1961). Research by Landauer and Bjork (1978) and Bjork (1988)
suggests that it may even be optimal to expand the successive intervals between
practice sessions. Another technique is to reduce the fidelity of simulation during
refresher training, practice, or rehearsal because it does not have to be as high as
in original training (Naylor and Briggs, 1961). A third technique is to employ
selected part-task training or conceptual simulation instead of the complete
original training conditions (Hutchins et al., 1985; Stevens

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and Steinberg, 1981; Young, 1983). Lastly, brief or partial cuing conditions can
also be used as an effective technique: for example, procedural skills can often be
rapidly remembered by reminder information, written or oral.

TRANSFER OF TRAINING
As just noted, training performance (i.e., level of original learning) may or
may not be an effective predictor of posttraining performance when the training
and posttraining contexts are the same or quite similar. When the training and
posttraining contexts differ, however, many of the most effective procedures for
facilitating the kind of learning that supports transfer apparently impair
performance during training. In this section we first discuss the role of level of
original learning and perceived similarity between tasks as general factors in the
transfer of training; we then discuss some specific procedures during training that
enhance transfer to different posttraining contexts.

General Factors in Transfer

Level of Original Learning

The level of original learning is not only a major determinant of retention, it
is also a major determinant of transfer. Positive transfer increases with the level
of original learning as long as structurally similar responses are required in the
training and transfer tasks. The greater the similarity between the tasks, in terms
of both stimulus and response requirements, the greater the positive transfer
between them (e.g., Ellis, 1965; Osgood, 1949; Schmidt and Young, 1987).
One might expect, for example, some positive transfer between a tennis
serve and an overhand volleyball serve because of the similarities in stimuli (a
tossed ball) and response requirements (an overhand throwing motion).
However, when a new response is paired with a previously learned stimulus,
negative transfer may initially occur (Siipola, 1941). An example of negative
transfer occurred in the evolution of the butterfly stroke in swimming (described
by Fischman et al., 1982). Before the 1960s, the butterfly stroke was swum using a
breaststroke kick. The introduction of the dolphin kick produced some negative
transfer among butterfly swimmers, probably because of the pairing of this new
kick with the traditional armstroke. When there is little or no association between
the stimulus-response requirements of two tasks, no transfer is expected: one
would not, for example, expect significant transfer effects between the movement
patterns of golf and bowling.

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It seems important to know the specific relationships between level of

original learning, task similarity, and positive transfer, but we found no recent
studies that examined the transfer of cognitive or motor tasks as a function of the
amount of learning. Several studies of complex problem solving, however,
suggest that performance improves with practice of the rules defining the task
(e.g., Anzai and Simon, 1979; Kotovsky et al., 1985).
When negative transfer is expected from a training task to a posttraining
task—that is, when structurally dissimilar responses are required in the training
and transfer tasks—the effects of level of original learning are more complicated.
Research on animal learning and on human verbal learning (Mandler, 1968)
found that as the level of original learning increases, transfer becomes
increasingly negative but that transfer becomes positive at high levels of original
learning. Mandler proposed that negative transfer due to response competition
increases monotonically to an asymptote as training is extended and the level of
original learning increases. Extended training, however, also produces a type of
generalized learning that is consistent with the transfer task as well as the training
task. Such generalized learning has positive influences that eventually become
stronger than the negative influence of response competition. Such an
interpretation is consistent with the “learning to learn” idea—that is, learning
general problem-solving strategies that are suitable for both training and transfer
tasks.

Perceived Similarity Between Tasks

It has been known for some time that, in general, the basis for transfer from a
training task to a transfer task are the common components shared by both tasks
(Thorndike, 1903). The greater the number of components common to the
training and transfer tasks, the greater their similarity, which should lead to
greater positive transfer. Gick and Holyoak (1987) propose that any salient
similarity between training and posttraining tasks will influence a trainee's
perceived similarity between the tasks, which in turn will trigger retrieval of the
trainee's mental representation of the training situation during the transfer task.
The greater the perceived similarity between the training and posttraining tasks,
the more likely it is that a trainee will attempt to transfer what was learned during
training to the posttraining task. If transfer is attempted, then the direction of
transfer—whether it is positive or negative—will be determined by the similarity
between the training and posttraining tasks in terms of features that are causally
relevant to the goals of the tasks or to the responses required in the posttraining
task.
The features of a given task may be either structural or surface
characteristics

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(Holyoak, 1985). Structural characteristics are causally related to goal

attainment; surface characteristics have no such relationship. In the absence of
structural similarity, perceived similarity could be based on surface features that
may produce negative transfer. It is important to understand that perceived
similarity is not simply a function of the objective properties of the two
situations. Perceived similarity is also a function of other factors, such as the
knowledge or expertise of the individual (Chi et al., 1981) and the context of the
two situations (Tversky and Gati, 1978).
It has also been hypothesized that similarity of goals and processing between
training and transfer tasks may enhance perceived similarity between those tasks,
which will then prompt reminding and transfer even in the absence of explicit
instructions or hints to apply the pertinent relevant knowledge (Gick and
Holyoak, 1987). In an interesting two-phase experiment, Weisberg et al. (1978)
found that the absence of shared goals does not aid memory. In the first phase,
subjects were asked to learn a list of paired associates, one of which was the pair
box-candle. In the second phase, the subjects were asked to solve Duncker's
box-candle problem, which is to figure out a way to attach a candle to a wall
using only the materials provided (which include a candle and a box of tacks).
The solution involves emptying the box of tacks, using one tack to mount the
empty box on the wall, and using melted wax to affix the candle to the top of the
box. Weisberg et al. (1978) found that the prior paired-associate learning task did
not aid the subsequent problem-solving task. Thus, it is the goal of the task itself,
not the particular parts of the problem, that prompts past experience. What is
important is the similarity of processing between training and transfer tasks. The
chance of obtaining positive transfer is more likely when performers process the
training and transfer tasks in a similar way so that compatible responses in both
tasks are produced (Bransford and Franks, 1976; Bransford et al., 1979; Lung and
Dominowski, 1985; Morris et al., 1977).
In summary, whether or not transfer occurs from training to posttraining is a
function of perceived similarity between the two contexts. Perceived similarity of
the two tasks is a function of any salient shared component and of a number of
other factors, such as expertise and context. To a great extent, an individual's
expertise on the subject determines whether the similarities observed are surface
features or structural features. Whether actual transfer is positive or negative
depends on the actual amount of structural similarity. Transfer is positive when
the training and transfer responses are highly similar, that is, when they contain
many shared structural components and few distinctive components. Thus, the
amount of transfer obtained between situations is a function of the perceived
similarity; the direction of transfer is a function

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of the objective structural similarity. The greater the perceived similarity of the
situations, the greater the amount of transfer. No transfer takes place when two
situations are perceived as unrelated, regardless of the degree of response
similarity. If a learner does not perceive the similarity between training and
posttraining contexts, the level of performance achieved in training clearly will
not predict posttraining performance.

Enhancing Transfer
Some of the most promising methods of training for transfer to altered
contexts create difficulties for a learner during training. Some of the most
promising of those methods involve creating certain types of interference,
introducing variability, and reducing the frequency of external feedback.

Providing Contextual Interference During Training

Research on contextual interference shows that learning that requires more
cognitive processing is related to better retention and transfer. Contextual
interference involves changes in the training context, including changes in the
task, practice conditions, and the processing used by trainees. Contending with
such changes demands cognitive processing that can, in turn, enhance the level of
original learning. These changes have been referred to as “contextual variety,”
which Battig (1979) believes is closely related conceptually to “transfer
appropriate processing” (Bransford et al., 1979). Battig also considers contextual
variety to be a way of overcoming the boundaries in memory performance
imposed by encoding specificity—in which there is a need to reinstate the
original encoding context during a test—to improve performance (Tulving and
Thomson, 1973).
One example of contextual interference is provided in a study conducted by
Shea and Morgan (1979). They studied the learning of three similar procedural
motor tasks that required adult subjects to knock down a series of barriers (with
their hands) in a designated order as fast as possible without making any errors.
Each of the tasks consisted of a separate pattern of barrier contacts for each trial
of training. The three tasks were practiced in two ways, “blocked” and “random”:
blocked practice involved performing 18 trials of one task before performing 18
trials of each of the other two tasks; random practice involved a random ordering
of the three tasks over the 54 total trials. Following training, subjects transferred
to either blocked or random conditions with a 10-minute and a 10-day interval.
The major finding was that random practice

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produced poorer performance than blocked practice in training, but it produced

superior performance in the posttraining context. This finding has been supported
by other studies of adult learners (see Magill and Hall, 1990, for a review).
Another example, using a laboratory task, involved learning certain finger
movements; the interference was having or not having the trainees also learn to
articulate nonsense terms (e.g., XENF) to match the finger movements. The
result was more proficient transfer performance on a different version of the
finger task for those who learned the nonsense terms (Battig, 1956, 1966). This
finding could be interpreted as showing that the contextual interference between
word pronunciations and finger movements generated enhanced transfer. In other
words, intratask interference in training produces greater intertask transfer.
Battig (1972, 1979) and others (for reviews, see, e.g., Fendrich et al., 1988;
Magill and Hall, 1990; Shea and Zimny, 1983) have confirmed this effect and
demonstrated that having to overcome high contextual interference during
training produces poor performance in training but enhanced retention and
transfer, for both cognitive and motor tasks. Whether or not contextual
interference occurs is largely contingent on the degree to which the posttraining
task is the same as the one used in original learning. This result follows directly
from the “encoding specificity principle” (Tulving and Thomson, 1973) and from
the findings of classical intertask transfer research—that an appreciable change
from the original learning or encoding situations usually results in decrements in
retention or transfer (Battig, 1979).
Battig (1979) explains this effect by proposing that multiple and variable
processing strategies have to be used to overcome high contextual interference in
order to encode the knowledge or skill being learned. Theoretically, training or
practicing under a condition of high contextual interference produces more
elaborate and distinctive processing, which enhances retention. Presumably,
elaborations during processing produce memory structures for the knowledge or
skills learned that are richer and more discriminable and thus lead to easier
retrieval. The extent to which positive transfer is enhanced is believed to be a
function of the degree to which the contextual interference induces processing
strategies that are appropriate for learning other tasks (Morris et al., 1977;
Bransford et al., 1979). Since contextual variety should lead to more elaborate
and distinctive encoding, it is likely to offer stronger resistance to the typically
negative effects that are found when posttraining tasks are changed. In other
words, encoding specificity is more likely to be overcome if the original
encodings occurred under high contextual variety. Conversely, similar task
contexts should induce processing consisting mainly of the development of
discriminative and organizational change

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suited to the specific task demands. Thus, item similarity in original learning of a
task should produce better retention or transfer when the task is the same in
posttraining as it was in original training. In summary, incorporating contextual
variety in training introduces functional interference that makes learning less
context dependent and involves trainees in processing activity that in turn
produces enhanced retrieval from memory and the ability to adapt their
performance to different contexts.
Several studies involving retention and comprehension of verbal materials
bear an interesting relationship to the idea of contextual interference. Mannes and
Kintsch (1987) had subjects study a brief technical article (on industrial uses of
microbes) after studying either an outline that was consistent with the
organizational structure of the article or one that was inconsistent (but contained
the same information). On tests of verbatim knowledge (e.g., verbatim recall of
statements from the article or true-false judgments of whether a given statement
did or did not appear in the article), the consistent outline produced better
performance, but on tests that required drawing inferences or proposing (or
ranking) possible solutions to potential problems, the inconsistent outline
produced better performance. The consistent outline apparently resulted in a
simpler, more coherent representation in memory, which served to guide verbatim
recall and recognition, but did not support processes of generalization and
inference. The inconsistent outline, in forcing subjects to resolve organizational
discrepancies, apparently resulted in a more embellished, abstracted
representation in memory, a representation that contained fewer literal details
from the article but that permitted more of the kind of extrapolation that underlies
generalization and inference.
Smith et al. (1978) demonstrate that simply varying the environmental
context across study sessions on a list of words improves later recall in a novel
setting. Smith and Rothkopf (1984) show that such environmental variation can
enhance retention of instructional content as well: they manipulated whether four
successive 2-hour lectures in a miniature statistics course were given in the same
location or in four different locations. They found that recall of key concepts a
week after the course was better for students in the varied-context condition. They
also found—consistent with the advantages of distributed practice and for both
the same-context or varied-context conditions—that presenting the four lectures
on four successive days resulted in better recall than presenting all the lectures on
one day.
It is of interest to note that training under high contextual interference
enhances task retention and transfer in a fashion analogous to supplementary
practice: that is, it increases the level of original learning or

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overlearning. This retention and transfer outcome suggests that training under
high contextual interference may be conceptualized as being functionally
equivalent to training with additional practice (Farr, 1987). It also suggests that
the level of overlearning is being indirectly manipulated by varying the level of
contextual interference during training, and so could be viewed as similar to
directly manipulating the level of overlearning by varying the amount of
supplementary practice.
It can also be argued that even direct manipulations enhance retention and
transfer to some extent as a result of the quality of processing during original
learning and overlearning. Typically, the enhancement of retention that results
from giving supplementary practice to increase the level of overlearning is
attributed to the strengthening of connections due directly to the additional trials.
However, Mandler (1968) argues against this interpretation because he believes
that a retrievable trace is primarily the product of organization—that mere acts of
rehearsal or repetition associated with additional practice do not by themselves
produce a retrievable trace. Rehearsal or repetition simply allows a learner to
establish initial categories and place items into them or to reorganize the
categories. Of course, rehearsal or repetition may also provide a learner with the
opportunity for more elaborate, deeper processing of information, as Battig
(1979) originally proposed. Mandler's position is clearly too extreme in that
certain types of stimulus-driven learning take place as a product of mere exposure
and repetition, without intentionality on the part of the learner (see Roediger,
1990, for a review of such phenomena); in terms of subsequent purposeful recall
of information, however, it seems safe to say that the quality of processing is
clearly more important than the duration of processing. The large body of work
carried out within the “levels of processing” framework (Craik and Lockhart,
1972) supports this generalization, and that work also supports the generalization
that it is the nature of initial processing, not the subject's intent to learn or
remember, by itself, that determines later recall performance.

Increasing Variability and Variety in Training

In this section we examine some transfer studies in which performers learned
by examples without being given a rule for or a definition of a category. In two of
these studies (Gick and Holyoak, 1983; Homa and Cultice, 1984) positive
transfer of knowledge was found to increase with the number of examples
provided during training for a category-learning task. Theoretically, increases in
the number of examples in training should increase the chance of learning the
most appropriate rules for transfer on the basis of the features that are structurally
associated

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with category membership. However, optimal positive transfer depends on the

representativeness or variability of the examples provided with respect to the
category (Anderson et al., 1979). High variability of examples in training
generally facilitates transfer; low variability increases the chance that trainees
will undertake the transfer task without rules for classifying examples that they
have never encountered before (Fried and Holyoak, 1984). Although high
variability of examples in training tends to enhance transfer if learning is
successful, it may impair learning at the outset, especially if the examples are few
in number (Peterson et al., 1973).
When a large variety of examples are given during training, the order in
which they are presented may affect learning (Nitsch, 1977). Moreover, the
optimal order of examples may depend on performers' approach to the learning
task. Using a classification task, Elio and Anderson (1984) found that transfer
was better when examples with low-variability were presented first, but only
when learners were instructed not to look for a deterministic rule for category
membership (i.e., an implicit learning strategy). Examples with high variability
examples were best presented first if learners were instructed to look for a rule
defining category membership. In general, it is important to realize that
instructions given to learners can influence the processing strategies they use
during training, which in turn can affect both learning and transfer (Brooks,
1978; McAndrews and Moskovitch, 1985; Medin and Smith, 1981; Sweller et
al., 1982).
The findings discussed thus far are based on transfer studies in which
subjects learned by examples without being provided with a rule for or definition
of a category. When an abstract rule or definition of a category for the task is
given to subjects, the inclusion of examples with such abstract training facilitates
transfer (Cheng et al., 1986; Gick and Holyoak, 1983; Nitsch, 1977). There is
some evidence, however, that in certain situations only a minimal number of
examples need to be provided (Fong et al., 1986). It appears that including an
abstract rule with examples in training is particularly useful when the training and
transfer items are superficially dissimilar (Gick and Holyoak, 1983) or when it is
difficult to determine the rule from the examples alone (Cheng et al., 1986; Fong
et al., 1986).
In the motor domain, much of the recent research on variability of practice
has been conducted within Schmidt's (1975, 1982) schema theory of discrete
motor skill learning (discussed above). This theory proposes that practice
produces abstract rules that control classes of movement responses, with each
class being represented by a generalized motor program. For example, kicking
motions such as those involved in kicking a soccer ball are assumed to be
generated by a generalized motor

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program. Kicking a soccer ball a certain distance at a given speed is produced by

specifying parameters (e.g., overall duration or force of the response) for the
generalized program. Parameters are selected on the basis of schemata or rules,
developed from past experience with the program: these schemata specify the
association between the environmental outcomes of the kicking movements and
the values of the parameters selected. When an individual wants to kick a certain
distance, his or her schema specifies the parameter for the generalized motor
program for kicking, and the program is executed with this parameter value.
Thus, the movements needed to generate each individual kick do not have to be
stored or represented, and the soccer player can produce novel kicking
movements that have not been used before. An important prediction of this theory
is that increased variability of practice pertinent to the generalized program would
impair performance in training, but would yield enhanced performance in
posttraining on a transfer test to a novel task within the same response class.
Many studies have investigated this prediction, and although the evidence is not
entirely consistent, there is a reasonable amount of support for it (e.g., Catalano
and Kleiner, 1984; Margolis and Christina, 1981; for a review, see Shapiro and
Schmidt, 1982).
Recently, however, Schmidt and Young (1987) have interpreted the
variability of practice effects found in previous studies in terms of blocked or
random practice, that is, in terms of contextual interference. They suggest that the
variability-of-practice effects may be nothing more than random-practice effects.
Certain results, however, obtained by Wulf and Schmidt (1988) with adults and
by Pigott and Shapiro (1984) and Wrisberg and Mead (1983) with children, seem
difficult to interpret in terms of contextual interference effects.
In summary, training manipulations that involve number, variability, and
order of examples for category-learning tasks and variability of practice for
motor-learning tasks may impair training performance, but they appear to
increase learning so that posttraining performance is enhanced. This is yet
another line of evidence that indicates that the level of performance achieved in
training is not a good predictor of learning and posttraining performance in
transfer.

Reducing Feedback
Feedback is an integral part of most training programs. It can be defined as
information resulting from an action, and it can be intrinsic or augmented.
Intrinsic feedback is the information people receive as a natural consequence of
their actions and takes two forms: proprioceptive feedback is the sensing of
muscle, joint, or tendon activity, as in the

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feeling from executing a golf swing; visual feedback comes from the outcome of
an activity, as in the flight path of a golf ball. Augmented feedback, which is the
focus of this section, is information performers would not ordinarily receive as a
result of their actions. It is provided by a source external to the performers, such
as an instructor, mirror, or videotape system. Augmented feedback can be verbal,
as when an instructor explains how to correct an error, or it can be nonverbal, as
when an instructor demonstrates how to make a correction or shows a videotape
replay of an individual's performance. Typically, augmented feedback comparing
the performance outcome with some goal outcome is referred to as knowledge of
results; augmented feedback that characterizes the movement pattern itself is
referred to as knowledge of performance. (For other descriptions of different
types of feedback, see e.g., Schmidt, 1988:423-426).
It has been known for some time that augmented feedback has a substantial
effect on learning and performance during training (e.g., Thorndike, 1927). The
focus here is on the influences that feedback has on retention and transfer during
training. Much of the recent relevant research has been carried out in the motor
domain (for reviews, see Newell, in press; Salmoni et al., 1984; Schmidt, in
press). That research has challenged a commonly accepted generalization about
augmented feedback that emerged from an abundance of prior research (see
Bilodeau, 1966, 1969). That generalization is that any increase in feedback in
training—in its immediacy, accuracy, or frequency—will improve learning and
performance. Over the years, that generalization served as a basis for
incorporating augmented feedback in the design of training programs and
simulators. However, evidence from some recent studies in the motor domain
(e.g., Schmidt et al., 1989; Winstein, 1988; Winstein and Schmidt, 1990) and
several earlier studies in the verbal domain (e.g., Landauer and Bjork, 1978;
Krumboltz and Weisman, 1962) raise questions about the validity of the
generalization.
Generally, these studies manipulated augmented feedback in training by
giving it less frequently, such as on every fifth trial instead of every trial; or by
giving it on every early trial but gradually eliminating it on later trials; or by
giving it in summary form over a set of trials. Essentially, these studies reveal
that training with augmented feedback that is given less frequently or in summary
form produces poorer performance in training than feedback administered after
every trial, but it produces better posttraining performance in retention and
transfer. These results can be interpreted as indicating that frequent augmented
feedback during training functions primarily to guide behavior toward the
criterion (i.e., training) performance but that it also may create a dependency in
which the feedback is relied on to guide behavior, and the learning

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needed to produce proficient posttraining performance in retention or transfer

either does not occur or occurs only at a weak level. This dependency on frequent
augmented feedback could be the result of the trainees' not using information-
processing strategies that would ordinarily be used to learn the task in training if
feedback were available less often. Without having adequately learned the task,
the trainees are at a disadvantage for retention or transfer when there is no (or
less) feedback.
In summary, augmented feedback has traditionally been structured to bring
about rapid acquisition of a task so that some criterion level of performance in
training is achieved as quickly as possible. But the evidence now suggests that
some of the commonly accepted ways in which augmented feedback has been
manipulated to facilitate training performance are less than optimal for enhancing
learning and posttraining performance. The evidence in this section (see also
Schmidt and Bjork, 1992) indicates that the kind of feedback manipulations that
enhance learning and posttraining performance actually decreases the rate at
which performance improves during training.
The common denominator of the training procedures reviewed above is that
they teach processes that can be called on by a posttraining task at a later time,
particularly if the posttraining task and setting differ from the training task and
setting. That is, such procedures induce “transfer-appropriate processing” (Morris
et al., 1977). In responding to the “difficulties” introduced by contextual
interference, variability in the conditions of practice, reduced feedback, and so
forth, the learner is taught to carry out processes that result in a more elaborated
mental representation of the task—a representation that can, to some extent, be
used in a different context. The learner is better prepared, so to speak, not only to
perceive the similarities between the training task and the different versions of
that task in posttraining contexts, but also better equipped to perform by having
achieved the more generalized declarative and procedural knowledge demanded
by that category of task.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING

Measuring Learning and Performance The effectiveness of a training
program should be measured not by the speed of acquisition of a task during
training or by the level of performance reached at the end of training, but, rather,
by a learner's performance in the posttraining tasks and real-world settings that
are the target of training.
Two important dimensions of posttraining performance are the ability to
resist forgetting and interference over periods of disuse of a given skill and the
ability to generalize training to contexts and tasks that

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OPTIMIZING LONG-TERM RETENTION AND TRANSFER 48

differ in their surface characteristics from the training contexts or tasks.

Depending on the relative priorities given to those two dimensions of posttraining
performance, the optimal package of training components will differ somewhat.
One general principle, however, is that tests of a learner's progress during training
should, as much as possible, measure performance as it will be measured on the
posttraining task(s) in the posttraining setting(s).
Retention Given posttraining tasks and conditions that are identical or
similar to the training tasks and conditions, posttraining performance is enhanced
as the level of original learning is increased. That level can be increased by
putting greater demands on the learner—making the criterion of mastery more
difficult, for example, or requiring supplementary (postmastery) practice after the
criterion has been reached. Introducing variations in the conditions and
sequencing of practice, the immediate consequence of which is to degrade
performance, may be a particularly promising way to increase the level of
original learning, and, hence, posttraining retention.
Skills that demand little attention or effort to perform are regarded as
automatic; the more automatic a given skill, the higher the likelihood that the
skill can be retained over nonuse periods without refresher training. Certain types
of procedural tasks, however, tend to be easily forgotten, especially when their
components have a low degree of internal organization or cohesiveness. The rate
of forgetting of procedural tasks is a function of the number of steps needed to
perform the task, and the steps most likely to be forgotten are those not cued by
the equipment, environment, or preceding steps.
Several instructional strategies to enhance the retention and transfer of
procedural tasks can be derived from the research on learning: relating the
knowledge to be learned to the relevant knowledge learners already have in
memory; teaching techniques (e.g., mnemonics) that learners can use to provide
their own elaborations; having the training regimen require repeated use of the
knowledge to be learned; and providing for and encouraging the use and
elaboration of acquired knowledge and skill during nonuse periods. In general, a
learner should be an active participant, not a passive observer, during the training
process.
However well designed the initial training, refresher training may still be
needed during posttraining periods of disuse in order to maintain a given level of
knowledge and skill; refresher training can become less frequent over time. The
training needs of retrainees are different from those of new trainees; relatively
efficient, cost-effective techniques can be used to maintain a given level of
original learning in retrainees.

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Transfer of Training In general, the similarity of goals and cognitive

processing between training and transfer tasks is a critical factor in enhancing
transfer. A learner, therefore, should be challenged by means of manipulation of
practice variables, such as feedback, contextual interference, and number and
variability of examples. These manipulations, which may impair training
performance, not only help the learner to process the learning task more deeply,
but also suggest appropriate processes for transfer, particularly to related but
distinct posttraining tasks.

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MODELING EXPERTISE 57

4
Modeling Expertise

Modeling an expert literally means watching and imitating what an expert

does. For instance, in learning a motor task such as serving in tennis, it would
mean a novice's observing how the tennis teacher throws her elbow back and how
far she reaches behind her back with her racket. The observation itself may in
fact be more accurate than the teacher's own analysis of how she actually serves.
Conversely, in correcting the student's serve, the teacher can observe the outcome
of the serve—where the ball landed—and conclude what might have been the
postural cause and provide feedback accordingly. For “transparent” tasks such as
motor tasks (playing tennis) or other physical skills (such as weaving), the
connection between the purpose and process of an action taken and its outcome is
direct, and correction is straightforward, although often difficult to achieve.
There are two obvious difficulties in using direct modeling for complex
cognitive tasks. First, the rationale for the performance of the tasks is not only
opaque to observers, but may also be implicit for the experts: they may not be
able to describe their own thought processes or the rationale for them, even
though they can perform the tasks. Second, in order to properly coach a novice,
an expert may have to formulate an accurate mental model of the novice's
understanding of the task (sometimes called the student model). But a novice's
understanding of a task is not always obvious to the expert. These two key
problems—which are woven throughout this chapter—suggest that there might be
a limitation on the extent to which direct modeling of complex cognitive skills
can be done.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

MODELING EXPERTISE 58

For example, suppose that a trainee is asked to learn to diagnose a fault when
the instrument panel shows three problems: warning light A is flashing (condition
A), dial B is off (condition B), and the sound system is generating a warning tone
(condition C). The expert arrives and on seeing the three conditions, takes the
following three actions: checks the power supply (action X), swaps the board
(action Y), and resets a gauge (action Z). By observing this sequence of actions,
what can the trainee learn? The trainee could learn a set of individual local rules,
such as: if condition A holds, then take action X; if condition B holds, take action
Y, and so forth. In order to learn this simple sequence of conditional action rules,
the trainee has to accomplish two processes. First, he or she must learn to identify
what the precise condition is for each action. Was it the flashing light that
mattered (condition A), or was it the yellow flashing light rather than a blue
flashing light that mattered? Second, the trainee has to link the condition with the
action. For example, dial B, saying “off,” initiates resetting a gauge. Inducing
these simple local rules are by no means trivial, but once learned, they can be
quite powerful in troubleshooting a number of problems.
It may be, however, that the expert's actions were not meant to be interpreted
as a sequence of local conditional rules, but that a conjunctive rule should have
been learned: if the pattern of A, B, and C conditions occurs, then take actions X,
Y, and Z. This means that if conditions A, B, and F occur, one would not take
action X, action Y, and some alternative third action that is an appropriate action
to condition F in isolation; instead, perhaps when the pattern of conditions A, B,
and F, occurs, some totally different action should be taken. Alternatively,
perhaps conditions A, B, and C lead the expert to realize that this is a special kind
of fault Q, which normally can be solved by taking actions X, Y, and Z. If this is
the case, then the trainee has to learn to identify what kind of conditions typically
can be considered to be a type Q kind of fault so that the sequence of actions X,
Y, and Z are appropriate. Direct modeling, in which a simple linking of actions to
conditions is induced, typically results in nontransferable skills: the trainee has
not understood and learned the reasons behind the actions, nor has the trainee
accumulated the knowledge necessary to recognize the conditions which then
generate the actions. (This simplistic example assumes that direct modeling is not
accompanied by verbal explanations. The nature of effective explanations is itself
an important and complex topic.)
In the first of this chapter's four sections, we consider direct modeling of
complex cognitive skills. We focus on a body of contemporary research on
cognitive apprenticeship. In the second section we review the ways in which
experts excel, considering their possession of a greater

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

MODELING EXPERTISE 59

knowledge base, the way that knowledge is organized, and processing strategies
to solve problems. Since expertise is based on knowledge, which in turn
generates the actions that experts take, we focus in the third section on the
difficult process of extracting an expert's knowledge. The last section focuses on
how knowledge extracted from experts can be imparted to novices.

COGNITIVE APPRENTICESHIP
There is one active body of research that promotes a technique for direct
modeling of complex cognitive tasks, called cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et
al., 1989). Cognitive apprenticeship borrows heavily from traditional
apprenticeship, which is quite successful in teaching physical skills. Traditional
apprenticeship involves three key components: observation, coaching, and
practice. Observation means the apprentice participates as a spectator, observing a
master or expert executing the target skill. Coaching refers to the guidance that
the expert provides while the apprentice attempts to perform the task. Coaching
physical skills involves two key features. First, the coaching or feedback is given
in a continuous, on-line fashion. For example, as an apprentice in weaving is
weaving the threads, the master might guide the apprentice's hands (Rogoff,
1986); it should be noted that the guidance provided in traditional apprenticeship
is often physical demonstration, not verbal instruction. Second, the master
provides conceptual “scaffolding,” that is the support, in the form of reminders
and help, necessary for the apprentice to perform an approximation of the
composite task. The degree of scaffolding provided depends on the extent of help
the apprentice needs. As the apprentice improves in his or her skill, the
scaffolding can be “faded.” The expert, therefore, must monitor the apprentice's
“zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, 1978), or “region of sensitivity to
instruction” (Wood and Middleton, 1975). The zone of proximal development is
the distance between the developmental levels at which children can perform a
task alone and the level at which they can perform it with some assistance. Third,
the apprentice practices with the master present. In this fashion, the apprentice
begins by executing piecemeal aspects of the skill and yet enjoys the reward of
the entire skill. The entire learning situation is embedded in practice or guided
practice.
Cognitive apprenticeship consists of six key components: modeling,
coaching, scaffolding (and fading), articulation, reflection, and exploration
(Collins et al., 1989). The first three are provided mostly by the teacher (expert),
and the last three are exercised by the learner (novice).

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

MODELING EXPERTISE 60

Modeling
Modeling cognitive tasks requires that the expert explain (“externalize”) as
much of the process that underlies his or her actions as possible. For example, in
solving a mathematics problem, the expert should talk out loud for the novice
while coming up with the equation. This externalization is comparable to the
think-aloud protocols that cognitive psychologists have been collecting as their
data for analyzing the processes of problem solving (see Newell and Simon,
1972). Ideally, the train of thought should reveal all the knowledge that the
expert is using, not only the factual and conceptual knowledge that is relevant to
the substantive domain, but also such strategic knowledge as special heuristics
for solving problems (such as “decomposing” the problem into subproblems or
considering the problem as a “simplified or special case”); control strategies in
making decisions, such as knowing which path to search; and learning strategies,
such as scanning the table of contents before reading a book to get a general idea
of what the book is about. The basic idea is to expose the complete thought
processes of the expert, including searching the wrong paths, arriving at incorrect
solutions, and so forth. Externalizing thought processes in this way should allow a
novice to learn about heuristics that may be useful for solving problems.
There are two aspects to this procedure of externalizing one's thought
processes. One aspect, which can be made known readily, is to make overt the
solution trace that the expert is undertaking. That is, the expert simply articulates
the operations he or she is carrying out as they are executed. The other aspect is
more tacit and may not be exposed as readily: the expert explains the rationale
for his or her selection of operations. The first aspect, exposing the “solution
trace,” tends to reveal a strategy that the expert is following; the second aspect,
exposing the rationale, may reveal the expert's knowledge structure. This
procedure implies that modeling would be more effective in domains in which the
use of a few strategies can promote learning and would be less effective in
domains that require deep domain knowledge.
Schoenfeld's (1983) teaching of mathematics illustrates this distinction. An
excerpt of his protocol on finding the relationship between the roots of two
polynomials with “reversed” coefficients shows the application of a special
heuristic that he attempts to teach students to use. The heuristic is called “special
cases,” and the idea is to solve simpler cases, such as to find the roots of simpler
quadratic equations rather than complex polynomials and to look for relations
between the roots. If one fails to “see” any relationship among the roots, then the
next step is to further reduce the polynomials to linear cases and solve for their
roots. The expert thus reduces the complex polynomials to simpler equations:

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first to quadratic, then to linear equations. The expert then observes a pattern in
the solution of linear cases—that the roots are reciprocals of each other.
The key strategy that Schoenfeld wants to get across is to generate and test
for a series of straightforward examples and then to see if some sort of pattern
emerges. The processes of doing so are exposed to the student by having the
expert talk out loud as he or she solves problems. Thus, basically, the expert is
modeling the strategies of generate-and-test and is reducing the problem to
simpler ones. What the expert is not modeling is the rationale for rejecting certain
roots after testing or how to select a set of roots to consider in the first place. For
example, the first pair of roots that Schoenfeld obtained from the quadratic
equation were

He then dismisses these by saying, “I don't really see anything that I can
push or that'll generalize.” How did Schoenfeld know that these roots are
uninteresting, without the potential for generalization? It is clear that by carefully
grading the exercise problems for the students, they will have learned the strategy
of reducing the problem to simple ones and of trying to look for patterns.
However, no pattern can be detected unless a student has recognizable patterns
already stored in memory. The point is that one can easily model the strategy that
an expert is undertaking, but it is more difficult to model and expose the tacit
knowledge that the expert might be using to carry out the strategy.
In sum, this kind of modeling (exposing the reasoning processes) is far
superior to traditional instruction in which a student is simply given a solution
(such as a worked-out example) and expected to induce the steps that were
undertaken to arrive at the solution; however, some aspects of the rationale of an
expert's reasoning processes may still remain tacit and not be easy for students to
follow.

Coaching and Scaffolding

Coaching consists of observing students who are performing a task and
offering hints, feedback, reminders, new tasks, or redirecting a student's attention
to a salient feature—all with the goal of making the students' performance
approximate the expert's performance as closely as possible. In traditional
apprenticeship, coaching is fairly constant and continuous. From the protocol
excerpt cited in Collins et al. (1989), the coaching provided by the teacher was
predominantly in the form of prompts for students either to summarize, ask
questions, make predictions, or clarify

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difficulties. Interspersed with prompts were feedback (such as remarks about the
quality of the summary or definitions of terms) and modeling (used here more in
the sense of imitation rather than exposing the reasoning process). As mentioned
above, however, it is not clear how a teacher knows which prompts and
guidelines to give—or what feedback to provide—unless the teacher has an
accurate idea of the student's mental model.
Scaffolding refers to the support a teacher provides so that the student can
succeed in performing the task. This support can be suggestions, hints, actual
execution of parts of the task, or physical props such as providing cue cards
(Scardamalia et al., 1984). Scaffolding thus involves cooperative execution by an
expert and a student, in a way that allows the novice to take an increasingly
larger burden for performing the task. In both scaffolding and coaching, the
expert is required to monitor the student's progress and understanding. Such
monitoring processes are demanding and complex, and they are not well
understood by cognitive psychologists. It is not now clear which aspects of
cognitive apprenticeship are more effective in promoting learning—modeling or
scaffolding and coaching. It is likely that the advantage gained results from an
interactive effect. An excellent example of a successful apprenticeship learning
program is provided by Brown and Palincsar (1989), in which they used
modeling, coaching, and scaffolding to teach students four strategic skills for
reading comprehension: formulating questions about the text, summarizing,
making predictions about what will come next in the text, and clarifying
difficulties with the text. The students' acquisition and use of these skills
improved their comprehension tremendously.

Articulation, Reflection, and Exploration

The purpose of modeling in cognitive apprenticeship is to encourage
students to undertake three activities: articulation, reflection, and exploration.
Articulation, defined broadly, involves any kind of overt constructive activity
carried out by a student, such as explaining the reasoning in an example problem
(Chi et al., 1989b), summarizing, predicting, clarifying and asking questions
(Palincsar and Brown, 1984), posing problems (Sharples, 1980), editing or
revising the text and formulating hypotheses (Collins and Stevens, 1983) or goals
(Schuell, 1991). The cognitive outcome of these activities is the integration,
synthesis, and linking of knowledge in memory.
Reflection refers to the process of evaluating one's own problem-solving
processes and comparing them with another student's or the teacher's processes.
Such comparison presumably leads to the perception

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of ambiguity, conflicts, and so forth, which will allow the student to modify his
or her own problem-solving or decision-making processes. Reflection seems to
involve complex processes: since it is known that confrontation by a teacher is
not necessarily an effective means of instruction, it is not clear why self-perceived
conflicts as obtained through reflection would be effective at promoting learning.
Exploration refers to the pursuing of new goals, formulating and testing new
hypotheses, conducting experiments, and so forth. Although it may not be clear
why each of these processes might work, the common characteristic of
articulation, reflection, and exploration is the pursuit of activities that can foster
an integration and synthesis of a student's newly acquired knowledge, so that
additional knowledge can be inferred and constructed.
It is important to emphasize that in cognitive apprenticeship one cannot
separate the role of the expert from the role of the learner. The expert's role
entails modeling the target skill, preferably accompanying it with explanation of
the rationales; modeling the use of learning and monitoring strategies; monitoring
the student's progress and understanding; and providing feedback. How all this is
accomplished in a social context is not yet understood. In fact, studies of tutoring
show that experts in a tutoring situation often do not formulate ideas of students'
mental models nor tailor feedback to the student's current level of understanding
(Putnam, 1987). Hence, an important aspect of cognitive apprenticeship lies in
the constructive activities in which the student or apprentice engages. We return
to this point below.

HOW EXPERTS EXCEL

The cognitive science literature on expertise in the last two decades has
concentrated primarily in demonstrating how experts excel in the domain for
which they have expertise. The focus has been on three issues: how experts
perform on laboratory tasks such as recall, recognition, problem solving, and
decision making; how the knowledge of experts and novices differ; and how the
strategies that experts and novices use to perform the tasks that they are given
differ.

Measures in Laboratory Tasks

One way to try to assess the abilities of an expert is by means of standard
laboratory tasks used by experimental psychologists, such as recall, recognition,
comprehension, speed of performance, monitoring accuracies, automaticity,
flexibility, and so forth. We illustrate the first four of these below.

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One of the most widely used laboratory measures of expertise is recall.

Experts such as chess masters can remember a far greater number of chess pieces
from a chess board than can a beginning player. For example, if a chess board
with pieces that define a midgame position is shown to both expert and novice
chess players for 5 seconds, the expert player can reproduce the locations of
about 25 chess pieces, while novices can reproduce only 5 or 6 pieces (Chase and
Simon, 1973). This measure holds true for any game domain in which recall can
be easily measured, such as the game of GO or bridge (Charness, 1979; Reitman,
1976)
Experts are also better than others at recognizing the important features of a
stimulus, such as an X-ray, a diagram of an electronic circuit (Egan and
Schwartz, 1979), or a topological map. Basically, they can detect whatever
salient features or patterns exist in the stimulus (Lesgold et al., 1988) and can
recognize during later trials which sets of stimuli have been presented earlier.
Chase and Ericsson (1981) showed, for example, that a person who had managed
to develop an outstanding memory span—the ability to give back over 100 digits
presented at the rate of 1 digit per second—could also recognize which
subsequences of digits were the ones that had been presented in a previous
memory trial.
Not surprisingly, experts can also better comprehend passages in a domain
for which they have expertise. Chiesi et al. (1979) have shown that experts can
also understand event sequences much better than can nonexperts. In baseball, for
example, such greater comprehension is demonstrated by the ability to generate
action outcomes that could happen on the next play, given a specific game state.
In addition, the actions that they generate are important to the game's goal
structure.
Monitoring accuracy refers to how accurately experts can monitor or assess
their own cognitive states, such as how well they have understood a passage, how
accurately they can predict how much effort they need to spend studying, or what
they think they can remember. Again, experts are far more accurate than novices
in predicting and assessing their own state of comprehension. In a study looking
at how good and poor problem solvers study physics examples taken from a
textbook, Chi et al. (1989b) found that the good solvers were much more accurate
at assessing whether they had understood a specific line in an example solution.
Moreover, when experts do not understand something, they know more
specifically what aspect of the example they do not understand, so that the
questions they ask about an example are more specific and targeted. Poor solvers
are much more inaccurate in their monitoring of their own comprehension; they
almost always think they have understood the example. Likewise, skilled chess
players are more accurate than less skilled players at predicting how many times
they need to look

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MODELING EXPERTISE 65

at the chessboard before they will remember the locations of all the chess pieces
(Chi, 1978).
An example from physics problem solving shows another dimension of
students' knowledge. Because experts can “see” beyond the surface description of
a problem, and “know” the solution procedure, they tend to solve a problem by
the appropriate method, such as using the force law. A student, however, might
solve a pulley problem the same way he or she solved a previous pulley problem,
simply because they both involve pulleys, without realizing that these two
problems may require two different solution methods.
In sum, experts excel on laboratory tasks in their domain of expertise (see
also Chi et al., 1988; Hoffman, 1991). There are two ways to explain why they
excel: in terms of their knowledge structures or in terms of the strategies and
heuristics they use. Each of these is discussed below.

Organized Knowledge Structures

Experts are able to perform more efficiently than novices on the types of
tasks summarized because they have more knowledge. However, it is not merely
the presence of knowledge that is responsible for the demonstration of skilled
performance; rather, it is how that knowledge is organized. More knowledge, if
improperly organized, actually leads to a deterioration of performance
(Anderson, 1974).
There are various ways to portray the organization of experts' knowledge,
corresponding more or less to the kind of knowledge that is being used during
task performance. This knowledge organization can be characterized by schemas
(mostly for declarative knowledge), production rules (for procedural knowledge),
and mental models (for both). Schemas and production rules allow an expert to
use knowledge flexibly and efficiently, to represent problems in a deep way so as
to access automatic processes, to recognize patterns and chunks, and so forth.
Schemas involve both conceptual and factual knowledge. Experts have many
more concepts, as well as many more features associated with each concept, than
do novices. More important, their concepts are interrelated in meaningful ways,
as reflected in their category structures. Chi and Koeske (1983) have shown, for
example, that for a given partial set of concepts that is available to both experts
and novices, the experts' concepts are interrelated in meaningful ways that
correspond to family types (in this research the subject domain is dinosaur
knowledge); novices' concepts are not interrelated in meaningful categories. The
existence and importance of meaningful patterns of associations have been known
for quite some time in visual-perceptual domains, such as chess

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playing. Chase and Simon (1973) showed that chess masters “see” patterns of
interrelated chess pieces on the chess board. It is these familiar patterns of pieces
that enable them to select the best move because these familiar patterns are
associated with optimal moves.
Experts know many more facts than do nonexperts. In a domain such as
physics, it is obvious that students must learn many facts—such as “A point mass
may be considered to be a body” in Newton's force law, or that g is the
gravitational constant. In another example of knowing more facts, of taxi drivers'
knowledge of routes, Chase (1983) found that expert drivers can generate a far
greater number of secondary routes (lesser known streets) than novice drivers;
furthermore, they can use this knowledge by generating short-cuts to reach a
target destination when there is an impasse on the main routes.
Again, the organization of facts is what facilitates their efficient use and
what distinguishes expertise. A commonly discussed representation for factual
knowledge is the schema or mental model, which is a knowledge structure that
captures the essential features of concepts, categories, situations, or events. Thus,
one way that factual knowledge about a category or an event is made coherent is
through the structure imposed by a schema. For example, a schema about the
concept of dog would contain prototypical instances, as well as key features that
are true of a generic dog. Each feature can be thought of as a dimension with a
range of acceptable values. Similarly, a complete coherent mental model of a city
permits expert cab drivers to take efficient secondary routes when they encounter
road blocks on the primary routes.
Mental models are analogous to a “structured analog of the
world” (Johnson-Laird, 1983:165). They represent not only the objects and
properties comprising a system or event, but, more importantly, they represent the
structural, functional, and causal relations among the components. Moreover, a
mental model can be “run” so that it can capture the dynamic aspects of a system.
In many ways, one can conceive of experts' superior skill as having more accurate
mental models.
Procedural knowledge generally refers to how one performs a task. There
are two kinds of procedural knowledge. Domain-specific procedural rules are
specific how-to rules that have actions attached to the conditions of application in
the domain. For instance, in the domain of electronic troubleshooting, seeing a
flashing light might trigger a rule of checking the power switch or some other
switch. Domain-specific procedural knowledge, as the name implies, is related to
a specific domain and cannot be used in a different domain; expert chemists, for
instance, cannot solve agriculture problems (Voss et al., 1983).
It is clear that experts possess a large quantity of procedural rules that enable
them to perform a task automatically and efficiently, as soon as

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they “see” the conditions. It should be stressed that the conditions are visible for
all to see, but only the experts realize the import or meaningfulness of what is
seen. Experts can perform some tasks automatically because many of these
procedural rules, over time and with repeated use, become combined into one
larger rule. Thus, several rules would have all their conditions concatenated, and
upon seeing the conditions, a sequence of actions is automatically taken.
Procedural knowledge is generally represented by condition-action rules, and the
entire set of rules is called a production system.
Metaknowledge is knowledge about what one knows, as well as one's ability
to monitor one's own comprehension state. This kind of knowledge has been
tapped by tasks such as asking people to judge the difficulty of a problem and to
allocate time and resources efficiently, which necessitates being sensitive to their
capabilities and limitations. For example, experts are much more accurate than
novices at judging how difficult it is to solve a given physics problem (Chi et al.,
1982); good students are better at allocating their time for studying; and good
students also are better at knowing when they understand the material and when
they do not (Chi et al., 1989b).

Strategies of Problem Solving and Reasoning

Besides having superior knowledge structures, experts are believed to excel
in their use of general strategies. For instance, solving a problem by going
backward from the unknown to the givens is usually called a means-ends
strategy. With a means-end strategy, a person's entire trace of problem-solving
actions is guided by a strategy for solution in which the problem solver starts by
using the unknowns as the goals and then searches for equations that can satisfy
the unknowns. This strategy can be used in many domains, whether physics,
algebra, or taxi routes. Two other additional general strategies are described
below.
Experts are often said to have complex general reasoning skills, such as
analogical comparison or reasoning. Scientific discoveries are often made by
using analogies, but it is easy to demonstrate that reasoning by analogy is a
heuristic that is available to everyone, even young children. The difference
between experts and novices lies in how one elicits a particular case as an
analogical one. Experts tend to be superior at picking the right case for making
the comparison. This ability, again, can be attributed to the richness of their
knowledge base. For example, Chi et al. (1989a) have shown that for children
aged 4-7, those who have expertise in the domain of dinosaurs reason in much the
same way as those who are novices. The difference is that when expert children
elicit analogical cases to help them understand the features of a novel dinosaur,

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the cases are drawn from other dinosaurs, in fact, dinosaurs from the same
family; in contrast, novices use other animals as comparative cases from which to
reason analogically. Similarly, Schauble et al. (1989) looked at how good and
poor solvers predict the outcome of a simple circuit and found that the solvers'
understanding of the circuit exhibited the use of analogies. Both the good and the
poor solvers showed the same frequency of analogy usage. The success of the
good solvers, however, seemed to depend on their ability to pick the right
analogy, one that shows deep understanding of both the analogy and the target
domain. Thus, it appears that the availability of general strategies per se is not the
deciding factor in determining an expert's superior performance; rather, it is the
application of a general strategy to a well-organized knowledge domain that is
critical.
One type of a general “divide-and-conquer” strategy is simplification, or
decomposition. The strategy involves breaking down a problem into its subparts,
solving each subproblem, and, finally, putting all the subproblem solutions
together. Jeffries et al. (1981) found that the way expert software designers solve a
complex problem is by decomposing it into simpler problems for which they
already know the solutions. Another variant of the divide-and-conquer strategy is
“subgoaling,” which is simply picking out an intermediate state on the solution
path as the temporary goal. In effect, subgoaling also divides a problem into two
or more subproblems, thus reducing the entire search space into a smaller one
after the subgoal is reached.
One common interpretation of these results is that experts' performance is
far superior to that of novices because they use these strategies. One could
equally argue, however, that the use of these strategies is a manifestation of the
content knowledge that the experts have, and that these general strategies are
available to everyone, novices and experts alike. The strategies are not used
efficiently by the novices because their inadequate knowledge base does not
permit such use. Thus, adopting strategies alone is not adequate for guiding a
novice's execution of a solution, even though the trace of an expert's execution of
the solution reflects the use of such a strategy.
A domain-specific reasoning strategy could either be a specific procedural
rule that an expert knows in a given domain (e.g., if light A flashes, push switch
X) or the application of a general strategy to a specific piece of knowledge. For
instance, when an expert radiologist reads an X-ray efficiently and correctly, it
need not imply that he or she used a more sophisticated scanning strategy, but,
rather, that the radiologist recognized one shaded area as malignant, which
suggested that another area might also be malignant (Lesgold et al., 1988). That
is, the scanning path was dictated by the knowledge of what related areas may

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be malignant. This declarative knowledge would lead an expert to scan the two
targeted area consecutively. Similarly, chess masters scan the chessboard very
efficiently, in that they focus on the key important pieces on the board, such as
the locations of the queen, king, rook, etc. (Simon and Barenfeld, 1969).
Although much research has been devoted to showing how efficiently experts use
specific strategies, the committee concludes that such use of efficient strategies is
often a manifestation of an underlying coherent and rich knowledge base. This
conclusion suggests that direct instruction of general strategies for novices may
not always be helpful.

When Do Experts Not Excel?

In general, experts excel only when they can use their rich domain
knowledge. In the classic chess experiment referred to above, expert and
beginner players were asked to recall chess pieces after having looked at a
chessboard position for 5 seconds. The experts exhibited spectacular recall of
chess pieces when these pieces were placed on the board according to
meaningful game positions. When the position of the same pieces on a board
were determined randomly, however, expert's recall levels dropped to the level of
novices. Thus, the experts excelled only when the chess pieces formed
meaningful configurations that corresponded to patterns that they had developed
in memory over the course of years (Chase and Simon, 1973).
Psychological measures of expertise—such as amount of recall, time to
complete a task, or efficiency in sorting and recognizing a variety of problems
and patterns—all show that experts excel largely because the stimuli used for the
tasks are familiar and prototypical so that the processing is fairly automatic. That
is, the processing involves a recognition or match between stored memory
representations and the external stimuli, as in the case of X-ray or circuit
diagrams. However, when experts are presented with nonroutine cases (e.g., there
are no stored representation of the problem or its solution), they use a deliberate
reasoning heuristic, such as a means-ends strategy. Similarly, their speed and
efficiency also deteriorate. Norman et al. (1989) found that expert
dermatologists' recognition time for typical disease cases is faster and more
accurate than that of novices. However, for atypical cases, experts' reaction time
was actually slower than that of novices. Obviously, for nonroutine cases, experts
cannot invoke automated perceptual skills that are derived from a rich knowledge
base. In these atypical cases, they must resort to the step-by-step deliberation that
novices generally have to undertake, relying on their general strategies rather than
domain-specific procedural rules.

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ELICITING KNOWLEDGE FROM EXPERTS

Because experts' knowledge is complex, multifaceted, and often tacit, the
problem of eliciting what experts know is a nontrivial problem. Different
techniques yield different forms of knowledge, some declarative and some
procedural. In addition, because some knowledge is more easily verbalized than
others, different techniques of knowledge elicitation may bias what is being
elicited.
A variety of methods can be used to elicit experts' declarative knowledge. To
elicit experts' knowledge of concepts, the interrelations among the concepts, and
perhaps even the coherence of the concepts, a common technique is a concept-
listing task (Cooke and McDonald, 1987). In such a task, the subject is simply
asked to list all the concepts related to a topic. Some assessment of the
organization can be gleaned from this simple task by examining the order of the
listing, as well as the content of the concepts listed. For example, prototypical
items of a category tend to be listed most frequently (Rosch et al., 1976). In order
to elicit subjects' organization about a specific domain of knowledge (such as the
form and content of schemata in memory), ordered recall and grouping are often
used. The groups that subjects either indicate explicitly (such as the perceptually
related pieces on the board of a GO game; Reitman, 1976), or indicate implicitly
(by order of recall), reveal the frequency of associations and interrelations among
concepts. These kinds of methods can reveal the tacit conceptual structures
among concepts (Chi and Koeske, 1983). Yet another common method of
eliciting experts' declarative knowledge is through interviews, question and
answers, and explanations (Chi et al., 1989b) or asking for the basic approach
(Chi et al., 1982). In the last method, experts and novices are simply asked to
state their basic approach to solving a problem; their answers indicate the kinds
and content of their schemata.
All these methods mentioned do not typically reveal the kind of procedural
knowledge that is attached to conceptual knowledge. One method for eliciting
procedural knowledge from experts or novices is simply to ask them to perform
the task, such as troubleshooting, solving problems, or making decisions, and
note the sequence of actions they take. The problem with this approach is that the
solver's trace (or sequence of actions) does not tell us what knowledge generated
the particular trace. Some computer simulation models that are sensitive to this
issue try to design a model in which the trace can be derived from the
knowledge. However, the knowledge that is modeled to generate the derivation
of such a trace is never unique, so that many models can be constructed that
generate the same trace. This outcome suggests that observing overt

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actions is too coarse a method to capture the underlying procedural knowledge.

Nevertheless, overt behavior in the course of performing a task is more likely to
provide knowledge of the procedures than experimental laboratory-type tasks.
Hanisch et al. (1988) showed, for example, that when expert telephone system
operators are asked to identify features of a telephone system, they tend to
generate declarative knowledge. However, when they were asked to act in
specified situations, their actions produced procedural knowledge.
Whatever the method of knowledge elicitation a great deal of effort can be
expanded on the analyses of the data, especially those that are collected by
interviews (structured or unstructured) and think-aloud protocols. Although it is
generally true that different methods of elicitation tend to uncover different kinds
of knowledge, with ingenuity one might be able to capture both declarative and
procedural knowledge. Alternatively, one might be able to devise more
comprehensive methods of eliciting knowledge from experts. Klein (1990) has a
taxonomy of 10 types of knowledge that one could elicit from an expert:
procedures; specific details; declarative knowledge; physical relations;
interpersonal knowledge; perceptual-cognitive skills; perceptual-motor skills;
goals; precedents (special cases or incidents); cultural knowledge. In order to
elicit all these types of knowledge, he has adapted a method introduced by
Flanagan (1954) that he calls the critical decision method. One of the two key
features of this method is that it focuses on nonroutine cases, which is assumed to
expose experts' knowledge more thoroughly than routine cases. The second key
feature is that the critical decision interviews are accompanied by specific probes
that should elicit knowledge corresponding more or less to each of the types listed
above. So, for instance, in order to elicit the knowledge about goals, the subject
may be asked directly, “What were your specific goals at this time?”
But even if all the knowledge an expert has can be thoroughly elicited, a
major problem remains: how to represent that knowledge in a way that can be
transmitted to a novice. For example, expert systems, which are computer
programs that embody expert knowledge, typically represent the expert
knowledge by rules. Such rule-based codings may not be adequate for
representing cultural practice, interpersonal knowledge, or even perceptual
knowledge. This is a substantial problem and the focus of much current research.

IMPARTING EXPERTS' KNOWLEDGE TO TRAINEES

Once we know how to elicit expert's knowledge, then we need to know how
to teach this knowledge to novices. The goal is to instruct

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skills in a way to ensure transfer and learning with understanding. This section
discusses three approaches: direct instruction, computer-aided support systems,
and cognitive apprenticeship.

Direct Instruction
The most traditional way of instructing skills is through a formal classroom,
using textbooks and teachers' lectures. We need not recount here the failures that
have been encountered by this approach. The most serious problem is that
knowledge learned in a training setting or classroom does not transfer to the
criterion setting—the real world. The appropriate conditions under which such a
skill needs to be accessed and executed are not attached to the actions during
training. For instance, the first thing fire fighters are typically taught to do is
search and rescue. However, they are not usually taught the conditions under
which such a routine should be disregarded, such as when a fire is getting started,
and there could be a good chance of extinguishing it (Klein, 1990). Skill
instruction typically focuses on a set of executable actions, and the relation
between the actions and the conditions are usually not specified in the classroom.
If instruction takes place in the targeted context, however, actions can be
associated with the proper conditions.
One approach to textbook learning in the classroom that may meet with
more success is to focus attention on the worked-out solutions or examples in the
textbook. Zhu and Simon (1987) have even shown a clear advantage if students
are given only examples and problems to solve, as opposed to standard instruction
with a textbook and instructor's presentations: a 3-year mathematics course can be
reduced to 2 years. In laboratory studies, there is evidence showing that students
prefer to rely on examples. Pirolli and Anderson (1985) found that novices rely
heavily on analogies to examples in the early stages of learning: 18 of their 19
students used the example presented in the text as a template for solving their
first programming problem. Futhermore, Chi et al. (1989b) further showed that
not only are there quantitative differences in how frequently examples are used as a
function of the students' skill at solving problems, but also that there is a
qualitative difference in how examples are used. Successful solvers of physics
problems used the examples about 2½ times per problem solution; less successful
solvers used the examples 6½ times per problem solution. Successful solvers used
the example only as a reference; less successful solvers reread virtually all of the
example each time it was consulted, which suggests that they were searching
aimlessly for a solution. Thus, beginning students rely on examples for learning
to solve problems, even though there are differences among students in the extent
of their reliance.

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MODELING EXPERTISE 73

LeFevre and Dixon (1986) found that subjects actually prefer to use the example
information and ignore the written instruction when learning a procedural task.
One of the reasons that examples are so popular and useful, even though they are
often inadequate in explaining the rationale behind each action taken in the
solution, is that the examples contain many of the procedural actions that are not
explicated in texts (Chi and VanLehn, 1991): the text usually presents concepts
and principles; the examples contain the actions that are executed to solve the
problem.
Although, in general, classroom instruction has not been very successful,
there is room for improvement. As suggested above, two promising directions are
to link the actions with the appropriate conditions and to focus more attention on
examples in a text. A third approach is group discussion, which has been shown
recently to improve learning in the classroom (Brown and Palincsar, 1989;
Lampert, 1986; Minstrell, 1989).

Computer-Aided Support Systems

Numerous efforts have been applied to the development of computer-aided
tools or systems for instruction. This approach has its obvious promise in its
ability to record a student's responses, to replay the student's solution trace, and to
display motion and invisible mechanisms on the screen, to name a few. It is also
believed that evolving interactive learning environments and intelligent tutoring
systems can be adapted to instruction of individual students. Three types of
computer-based instruction are practice environments, embedded expert systems,
and intelligent tutoring systems.
Computers can be used to create a variety of practice environments for
simulation-based training. The most common kind are direct simulations of a
real-world environment, such as a flight simulator. These simulations possess
physical fidelity: they can look and feel like the real situation. Such simulations
provide risk free and inexpensive practice. Simulations that forgo physical fidelity
but retain cognitive fidelity have also been implemented. “Steamer,” for
example, simulates the operation of a steam plant (Williams et al., 1981).
Although it does not preserve physical fidelity, its cognitive fidelity exposes the
processes of a steam plant, such as the flow of the fluids. Finally, one can
implement practice environments that present abstracted alternatives, such as
navigating a rocket in a different gravitational field (Abelson and diSessa, 1980).
Practice environments can be made more sophisticated by incorporating an
expert system. Such a system not only provides simulation of an environment,
but can also solve problems within that environment. This kind of system can
have different types of intelligence. For example, a

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system such as SHERLOCK (Lajoie and Lesgold, 1989) can solve a specified set
of problems, and a system such as the Intelligent Maintenance Training System
(Towne and Monroe, 1988) can troubleshoot any problem that the student poses
to it. Thus, the effect of having a built-in expert system is that it can provide
feedback (the solution) to the student. A drawback, however, is that the feedback
is not sensitive to the student's understanding.
A full-fledged intelligent tutoring system has four components: a practice
environment for solving problems, an expert system that knows how to solve all
the problems, a model of the student (in terms of understanding how the student
solves a problem, rather than whether the student's solution approximates the
expert's solution), and a system for pedagogy. At the present time, there is no
system that completely incorporates all these components. The best
approximations are Burton and Brown's (1982) “How the West Was Won”
system, and Clancey's (1983) Guidon system. Burton and Brown's system is
designed to teach children basic arithmetic operations in the context of a game
that is a variant of Chutes and Ladders. The system observes students as they play
the game and gives them hints or advice at critical moments. Since it is a very
simple game, the essence of the system is based on an analysis of the task, which
divides it into subskills. The subskills are arranged in an hierarchy and each
player's move is analyzed to determine the subskill to which it corresponds.
Erroneous moves are compared with the subskills to see which one has been
overlooked. Thus, the computer coach delivers feedback as a function of the
match or mismatch between the student's moves and the subskill hierarchy. The
coach also has heuristics for how to deliver instruction. Such pedagogical
heuristics include rules of thumb, such as only give unsolicited advice when the
player has made three or four moves without asking for advice. Hence, the system
contains a practice environment; an expert system, in that the system knows how
to play the game; a simple student model; and a pedagogy system, in its ability to
monitor students' “understanding” of the game and deliver feedback selectively
on the basis of the student's moves.

Cognitive Apprenticeship Revisited

In the first section of this chapter we noted that apprenticeship training is a
popular method of instruction that embodies cognitive modeling. It relies on the
teacher or the expert exposing the cognitive processes he or she is undertaking
while solving a problem, making a decision, or diagnosing a fault. As we noted,
certain strategies of learning can be easily modeled, and thereby perhaps learned
by students with relative ease. But the rationale for an expert's choices of
strategies or solution

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MODELING EXPERTISE 75

routes may not be obvious, especially if a great deal of content knowledge is

needed. Furthermore, monitoring a student's own understanding demands
complex processing, and it is not clear that this is undertaken normally by tutors.
Indeed, there is some evidence that teachers in a tutoring situation do not
necessarily provide “intelligent” coaching and scaffolding, presumably because
they have not monitored the student's understanding accurately. In fact, Putnam
(1987) observed six teachers tutoring students in a one-on-one situation and found
that they did not systematically diagnose students' misunderstanding and tailor
feedback accordingly. Instead, they seemed to follow a structured and prescribed
sequence of presenting subject-matter content to their students.
Despite the lack of complete understanding of the processes undertaken by
the tutor or expert, it appears that modeling in cognitive apprenticeship has had
some success in teaching reading and writing, perhaps because it encourages
students to engage in guided participation, actively articulating, reflecting, and
exploring the skill that they are learning. There is evidence to suggest that these
activities may be the critical source of learning in the apprenticeship situation.
These activities can be viewed as self-construction, including self-explaining,
asking questions, summarizing, providing critiques, posing problems, formulating
hypotheses, and revising and editing. We noted above that there is evidence that
these activities may facilitate learning and problem solving. There are also
research findings that can be interpreted as providing indirect evidence that these
activities are beneficial. For example, it is often noted that students improve their
problem-solving performance if they participate in pairs. The most profitable
dyadic situations are ones in which one member is more expert than the other
(Radziszewska and Rogoff, 1988). It appears that the less expert partner offers
self-explanations in these dyadic situations more than in the control situations in
which each partner solves problems alone (Azmitia, 1988). It is tempting to
speculate that what promotes the improvement of the less expert partner in the
dyadic situations is the opportunity to construct new knowledge through
articulation. Thus, to the extent that modeling promotes self-construction, it can
be an effective instructional tool for cognitive skills.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

An expert's knowledge is not only extensive, but much of it may be tacit, so
that it takes a considerable amount of effort to elicit it. Experts may not always be
aware of what their knowledge entails nor why they proceed in a specific way.
The tacitness of expert knowledge may pose a problem for the utility of cognitive
modeling for complex tasks requiring

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

MODELING EXPERTISE 76

a great deal of domain knowledge. However, it has been shown to be quite

effective in enhancing the learning of basic skills, such as reading (Palincsar and
Brown, 1984) and writing (Scardamalia et al., 1984). In the context of a complex
task, modeling in the sense of simply exposing an expert's own cognitive
processes may present two additional complexities from the standpoint of
instruction: to what extent does the student understand the expert's processes and
to what extent should the expert attempt to understand the student's cognition in
order to resolve the discrepancies between the two sets of processes. For
example, it is often not clear to a student why his or her own approach to solving a
problem is faulty or inappropriate. It appears that in order for cognitive modeling
to work in a knowledge-rich complex domain, the expert has to be sensitive not
only to his or her own cognitive processes, but also to how the student thinks and
approaches a problem and to be able to explain in those terms why the student's
approach may not work. To do so requires that an expert simultaneously is aware
of and can articulate his or her own problem-solving processes and actively
monitors his or her model of the student. Without further research on the
cognitive processes of a tutor, it is not clear how successfully a tutor can achieve
this dual role in a complex domain.
Although the idea of cognitive apprenticeship is promising and enticing, we
cannot determine at this time whether the expert-modeling component is the
critical one, since cognitive apprenticeship involves many other components, such
as the requirement that instruction be situated in context and that students
participate actively. Cognitive modeling also involves extensive explanations, and
it seems safe to conclude that the nature of explanations is critical in assuring how
well students can learn from an expert. Moreover, the self-constructions
undertaken by the students while engaged in cognitive apprenticeship may also be
an effective factor. Nevertheless, the success of cognitive apprenticeship for
reading comprehension and writing suggests that cognitive modeling may be a
feasible approach to explore for training basic skills.

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DEVELOPING CAREERS 80

5
Developing Careers

Managers in large organizations increasingly require complex cognitive and

social skills to deal with rapidly changing situations, and there is correspondingly
increasing interest in career development programs that teach the relevant skills.
One such organization is the U.S. Army, whose officers make decisions that
involve vast resources and have worldwide implications. Current Army officer
training at each level provides knowledge and skills to meet the needs at that
level. However, early development for individuals with the desire to do well in
advanced positions could contribute to successful performance at that level as
well as to career mobility. As one of its tasks, the committee agreed to formulate
an approach to careers based on concepts from the career-development literature
(e.g., the Jossey-Bass series on career development resources). This approach is
intended to contribute to ways of thinking about how career planning can be
incorporated in training programs to meet the needs of the Army and similar large
organizations.
Central to many training programs is the assumption that self-insight is a
necessary first step to career planning. It is assumed that a person's performance
can be improved through increased insight into one's needs, motives, strengths,
and weaknesses, and that this process can be aided by structured self-assessment
techniques. The Army's interest in these techniques coincides with a growing
industry of inventories marketed to organizations and individuals interested in
leadership training, developing interpersonal influence skills, team building,
improving communications, time management, or decision making and creative
problem solving.

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Many of the techniques are in widespread use in public and private

organizations. However, there has been little research on their effectiveness for
either improving performance or changing behavior, in either the short or the long
term. Nor have the techniques been placed within a broader framework of career
development. Until such evaluations have been done, the use of those techniques
can only be considered experimental. Thus, this chapter does not include an
evaluation of a wide range of techniques or review of literature. Instead, we
present an approach to the evaluation of self-report instruments and a way of
thinking about career development issues, taking into account recent work on
managerial development and performance in organizations.
The first section proposes a framework for studying and assessing career
development, with attention to the role of self-report instruments in a broad
context. The second section briefly describes existing Army career programs and
the results of a questionnaire survey of instruments used at the Army War
College. The third section discusses an evaluation of one popular instrument, the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The chapter concludes with
recommendations for research and applications that would contribute to a
broadening of the career development concepts that guide many current
counseling programs.

A FRAMEWORK FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The framework presented in this section is intended to provide ideas for
improving the career development process and for generating further research
that would assist in achieving that goal. The discussion uses concepts and
findings from the relevant behavioral science scholarly and research literature
dealing with careers and career development in organizational settings . 1 It is
relevant to the Army and its commissioned officers as well as virtually all large
organizations.

Propositions
The research literature points to seven basic propositions that should
undergird any set of programs aimed at strengthening career development
processes.
1. Each successively higher organizational level imposes new and broadened
demands on knowledge and skills. It has long been known that upper-
level executives formulate broad strategies, middle-level managers
translate those strategies into operational goals, and lower-level managers
or supervisors implement methods to achieve those goals. A recent IBM
study, for example, found that top-level executives spend a great

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DEVELOPING CAREERS 82

deal of time monitoring the environment, managers at the middle levels

concentrate on planning and allocating distributions of resources and on
providing for coordination among various groups, and the lowest echelon
managers spend the bulk of their efforts on relationships with
subordinates and motivating and assessing individual performance (Kraut
et al., 1989). Likewise, in the Army context, Jacobs and Jacques (1987)
have shown that the higher the level of the job, the greater the need for the
individual to demonstrate cognitive complexity—to be able to deal with
increasingly abstract and ambiguous situations through both analysis and
synthesis.
Unfortunately, there is no single and straightforward approach to
determining individual requirements for different levels and different
functional areas. Rather, it appears that there is a need to consider a wide
range of individual characteristics: cognitive, interpersonal, and
managerial skills; personality dimensions; interests; values; and
motivation. Thus, as London (1990:9) notes: “a comprehensive view of
the individual must match the complex nature of Army Officer positions.”
It therefore follows that Army officers will need considerable assistance to
gain an understanding of both their own characteristics—their strengths
and relative weaknesses—and career aspirations in relation to the needs
and demands of higher-level positions, and the role of training and on-
the-job experiences in furthering their development for those positions.
2. Early career experiences are crucial for strengthening subsequent
capabilities. Considerable research demonstrates the critical importance
of initial job experiences—especially the types of assignment received and
the types of supervision and mentoring provided to the person—for
determining the course and speed of later career development (Bray et al.,
1974; Bray and Howard, 1980; London, 1985; McCall et al., 1988). For
example, McCall et al. (1988) identified several early career events that
prepared executives-to-be for later career success: the first supervisory
job; key project or task force assignments; rotation from line to staff
positions, and vice versa; initiating an operation from scratch; turning a
failed operation into a success; and coping with various hardships (e.g.,
sudden job changes, making a mistake, or dealing with a difficult
subordinate). The import of these and other related findings is that career
development and career planning—on the part of both the individual and
the organization—should not be delayed until higher-level positions are
attained but should begin at the very outset of a person's career and should
continue.
3. Career motivation is a multidimensional construct and is a major factor in
career success. Career motivation is one of a number of characteristics
that are believed to contribute to an individual's performance

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

DEVELOPING CAREERS 83

across a series of jobs and positions. The concept is multidimensional and

includes needs, interests, and personality characteristics, which together
influence the development of career resilience, insight, and identity
(London, 1985; London and Bray, 1984). According to motivation
theory, as applied to careers, “career resilience” is the maintenance
component of motivation and refers to the ability to overcome career
barriers and obstacles and take a proactive approach to accomplishing
career objectives. “Career insight,” which, according to this theory, is the
“energizing component” of motivation, refers to an understanding of one's
strengths and weaknesses and an awareness of the social and political
environment within one's organization. “Career identity,” representing the
direction of motivation, encompasses one or more foci of one's energy and
goals.
Together, these three dimensions form a pattern of career motivation.
Resilience provides a foundation for forming a meaningful sense of
insight, and insight forms the basis for developing career identities.
Career motivation theory (London, 1983), therefore, argues for the
continuous strengthening of career resilience and for efforts to develop
insight and identity. It implies that those early in their careers, such as
junior officers, need to experience tasks, jobs, supervisors, and work
environments that will help them build confidence in themselves
(resilience). They also need to begin to acquire information and feedback
on their performance that will help them understand their personal
strengths and capabilities, their areas of relative weakness or
underdevelopment, and the operating environments in which they function
(insight). Finally, they will need early on to establish some defined career
targets, even though these may change over time (identity).
4. Although development occurs throughout a career, individuals are most
receptive to learning during times of “frame-breaking change.” The
concept of frame-breaking change refers to change that creates
uncertainties about the continued effectiveness of current repertories or
modes of behavior. Individuals undergoing these kinds of changes are
assumed to be motivated to search for behaviors, new and old, that will be
effective in the new environment. Research shows (e.g., Berlew and Hall,
1966) that the first year of an individual's career is one critical period for
new learning. Similar periods also occur when a person begins a major
new assignment or transfers to a significantly different geographical or
work environment. All of these and similar situations provide
opportunities for career development programs in which the person will
be maximally receptive to feedback and to encouragement for undertaking
efforts to add new capabilities or enhance existing ones. Thus, any
organization, including the Army, needs to be alert to how

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DEVELOPING CAREERS 84

these critical junctures can best be used for career development that will
benefit both the individual and the organization.
5. Individuals need at least some information about the requirements of
positions at least two levels above their current position in addition to
information about their current and next-level positions. This proposition
argues that if individuals are to formulate realistic plans for their career
development they need to receive information not only about their current
jobs and those immediately ahead at the next level, but also about jobs and
positions at least one level beyond that. In this way, they should have an
improved perspective about how their current activities relate to the kinds
of demands and requirements that will have to be met if they are to be
promoted. Thus, ideally, both current and future job performance are
enhanced.
The Army, like many organizations, already provides considerable training
for positions at the current level in the organization and, often, the immediate
next level. This proposition suggests that additional information on the types of
capabilities, knowledge, and skills that may be required in the future be provided
at relatively early stages in a person's Army career. This would permit the
individual to engage in more long-range and effective planning for his or her
career. While obviously not all officers will advance two levels from their current
level, such information would help all officers better understand the organization
of which they are a part and how their current assignment relates to it. Research
on career motivation indicates that such motivation is higher in organizations that
treat individuals as resources for the future as well as for the present (Bray et al.,
1974; Hall, 1976; London, 1985).
6. When individuals plan ahead in making career decisions, they make better
decisions. The more thought individuals give to making future career
decisions, the better will be the quality of those decisions. This
proposition implies obtaining as much relevant information as possible in
advance of a career decision about one's self in relation to future job and
organizational requirements. It also implies that it will be necessary to
analyze and interpret such information so that it can be used effectively.
Clearly, therefore, in the Army context there is a joint role for both an
individual officer and the Army: both parties need to understand their
complementary obligations to be as thoughtful as possible in career
decisions. Uninformed or ill-informed career aspirations and decisions
help neither an individual nor the organization.
7. Self-assessment is a potentially valuable aid in making informed career
decisions. Self-assessment (in the context of this chapter) can be thought
of as the systematic process of generating data about oneself

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and analyzing those data to provide guidance for career decisions. It is a

counterpart to systematic assessment of individuals by other means and
other sources, such as performance appraisals involving assessment by
superiors or assessment of performance in simulated work situations by
trained observers. As noted by Sundberg (1977:299):
People need an understanding of their own values, resources and
priorities to help them choose how they want to live. Tests and other
assessment procedures can help. . . . They can become instruments not
just for decisions and descriptions, but for learning about one's self or a
special area of knowledge or skill . . . such methods can enable
individuals . . . to move toward goals they devise.
The goal of self-assessment in career decisions is to facilitate a better match
between an individual and particular types of work or positions. Potentially, self-
assessment can improve the likelihood of individuals seeking jobs or vocations
that match their skills and personality characteristics (Stumpf and Colarelli,
1980). Indeed, a well-known theory of vocational choice (Holland, 1973) offers
considerable evidence supporting the usefulness of such matches. However,
accurate and meaningful self-assessment is not easy because the generator of such
information, the individual, is so close to and involved in the information
supplied. Ideally, self-assessment methods and instruments should produce
agreement between self and others and should be able to discriminate among
different performance and skill dimensions (London and Stumpf, 1982). If they
do, then they can play an important role in career development programs.

Objectives
In this section we outline five major objectives, or action steps, for a
systematic approach to career development programs. These action steps are
based on the seven propositions identified in the preceding pages and current
scientific knowledge about career development in organizations. They form a
logical sequence, starting with an analysis of current skill requirements and
career programs and ending with on-going and future evaluation of the entire
process. (These steps in turn lead to the section on research priorities.)
Objective 1. Analyze current skill requirements and career programs. In the
Army, a comprehensive review of current skill requirements and career programs
would involve the following kinds of actions: an analysis of key technical skills
required of officers at different levels and in different functional areas; an
analysis of the current levels of skill of officers; and an inventory of existing
career planning programs, assessment procedures, and career paths. The intent of
this

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first objective is to determine how well current needs are being met and to
provide benchmarks for evaluating gaps between current and future required
skills. Meeting this first objective would clarify the extent of integration among
current approaches to skill development and career planning in the Army and,
likewise, the extent to which there are gaps and discontinuities.
Objective 2. Identify skills and leadership styles that will be needed to a
greater extent in the future in the Army. This objective is designed specifically to
take into account the changing political, economic, and social conditions that will
exist in the 1990s and beyond. Expected and desired skills and leadership styles
appropriate to the future need to be identified and then compared with existing
skills and requirements so that they can be incorporated into career development
programs. Some skills and styles that may be relatively more emphasized in the
future might include, for example: understanding world economic and political
conditions; analyzing ambiguous situations that have no “right” or “wrong”
answers; empowering subordinates; negotiating; resolving conflicts; building
intergroup relations; and making complex resource allocation decisions. The
relevance of each of these (and other similar skills and approaches to leadership)
to positions at different organizational levels and functional areas need to be
analyzed as a basis for communicating and incorporating them into career
planning and development programs, as well as used as a basis for training,
appraisal, and reward systems.
Objective 3. Design a systematic and continuous career planning and
development process. On the basis of the results of achieving the first two
objectives, the Army should proceed to design a set of career planning and
development programs that are both systematic and continuous. This process
assumes that officers themselves should have the central role and responsibility
for their own career planning and development while the institution, the Army,
provides the enabling resources. Guidelines for designing such a comprehensive
and continuous process might include the following: assessment and self-
assessment methods that cover a wide range of individual characteristics;
information that is available to the officer concerning a range of specific career
opportunities in the Army and the leadership and management skills requirements
associated with each opportunity; the encouragement and expectation that
officers will use that information to set their own educational and top experience
goals; an explicit career planning process that can be applied to each major
function and level of the Army; and reasonable opportunity for officers to
determine their career directions within the limits of Army needs and
requirements.

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Objective 4. Identify and develop mechanisms to support the role of an

officer as coach, developer, and mentor of subordinates. This objective sets the
specific goal of emphasizing the necessity for coaching, developing, and
mentoring activities by superiors as part of any effective career development
process. To convert this objective into reality may require additional or special
training programs as well as explicitly considering the performance of these
activities in evaluation and reward systems. One such type of program would be
tutoring or expert modeling along the lines discussed in Chapter 4. More
generally, expert officers should be a good source of guidance about how careers
can be best developed. Some of the expert modeling methods discussed in
Chapter 4 can be used to elicit information on what officers do. Advantages and
disadvantages of these methods are outlined in that chapter.
Objective 5. Conduct continuous and systematic evaluations of the various
elements of the career planning and development process. This objective
recognizes that setting up and establishing a sound career planning and
development process is not enough. In order for it to remain effective, there must
be planned systematic evaluations of its various components. Comparisons will
need to be made between different approaches and programs to determine their
relative efficacy and payoffs: the programs that are not meeting the criteria set for
them need to be phased out or modified; those that are contributing to improved
individual and organizational performance need to be supported. This objective
also implies that research on various facets of the overall process should play a
vital role, as will experimentation with new or innovative methods.

Future Research Priorities

This section presents some future research projects that could facilitate the
goal of improving the Army's overall career development process. This list is
meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive and takes into account the reality of a
limited resource base to undertake such research.
Longitudinal Studies of the Effects of Intensive Career Development
Activities Particular cohorts of junior-level officers could be followed over time
to compare the effects (e.g., performance, officer career satisfaction) on those
given relatively greater amounts of intensive career development attention by
means of various self-assessment and other assessment procedures, career
counseling, and so forth in comparison with those given lesser amounts of career
development attention. Such research studies would help provide an objective
basis for the amount of

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resources—direct and indirect—that the Army should devote to career

development for officers.
Comparisons of the Effects of Particular Career Intervention Activities
at Particular Times Given limited resources, it is probably not feasible to
provide equally intense career development activities for all officers on a
continuous basis. Thus, it will be important to determine, through research, at
what specific point in an officer's career certain developmental activities or
assessments will have their greatest subsequent impact. Research of this type
could compare the relative effects of the use of a given instrument or
development exercise administered to different groups at different times.
Comparisons of the Effects of Specific Career Development Methods
and Instruments Again, given limited resources of both the Army and of
officers themselves in terms of their time and energy, choices will need to be
made concerning which methods, procedures, and instruments should be used on a
regular basis. Well-designed rigorous research involving direct comparisons
between particular methods will be a cost-effective way to weed out those that are
relatively ineffective, even if most or all of them may have a great deal of
apparent validity and popularity.
Studies on How to Motivate Officers to Follow Up and Take Personal
Action to Implement Further Skill Development Based on Information
Provided by Career Assessment Activities As noted above, receiving useful
information about one's self and about the requirements of potential future
positions in a career sequence in an organization is only a first step. An
individual must then act on this information if career development is to take
place. Relatively little is known about how individuals use the career information
they receive and what factors motivate them to take action. Research could test
several different approaches to motivating follow-up action to see which are most
effective. The criteria for determining the effectiveness of different motivational
methods or approaches would be the extent and frequency of the concrete career
development activities subsequently undertaken by officers within a given time.
Studies of the Effects of Career Coaching and Mentoring by Superiors
Research could be conducted to determine the relationship between different
amounts or types of career coaching and mentoring and subsequent career
development behavior and career satisfaction.

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ARMY PROGRAMS
Like many institutions, the Army has recognized the importance of
considering the development of careers as a part of its approach to training.
Although there is no system-wide program, a number of Army training facilities
and bases have developed programs that include goal setting and self-reflection
for career guidance. While sharing the overall objective of facilitating career
planning, the programs vary in emphasis placed on particular techniques or
procedures. These programs have been developed at the initiative of the local
commanding officer; they offer alternatives to the traditional one-on-one
counseling conducted between a soldier and his or her immediate supervisor.
Four centers have established programs: the Army War College (AWC) at
Carlisle, Pennsylvania; the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington,
D.C.; Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas; and Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth,
Kansas. Participation at all the locations is intended only to help students expand
their own self-awareness; the evaluations are not retained by the organization for
administrative use.

Self-Assessment Instruments
Career counseling programs use several instruments intended to provide
students with a variety of ways to view themselves on certain dimensions of
intrapersonal and interpersonal styles. Five instruments are used in many of these
programs: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Kirton Adaption-Innovation
Inventory, the Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description, the Terminal
and Instrumental Values Surveys, and the Organizational Values Survey.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) The MBTI uses four indices, which
are said to represent personality tendencies: “extraversion-introversion” (E-I),
which is the distinction between whether a person prefers the external world of
people and things or the internal world of ideas; “sensing-intuition” (S-N), which
distinguishes between whether a person pays more attention to realistic, practical
data or to one's imagination and the possibilities of a situation; “thinking-
feeling” (T-F), which is the difference between valuing impersonal logic or
personal values and emotions when processing information or making decisions;
“judging-perceiving” (J-P), which distinguishes between analyzing and
categorizing the external environment and responding to it flexibly and
spontaneously. The questions used to develop the four indices take the following
form: “When you go somewhere for the day, would you rather (A) plan what you
will do and when, or (B) just go?” The combination

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of the four indices is a type or representation of how one operates in the world
(e.g., ENTJ or ISFP). The type indices serve as a basis for guided discussions
that usually take place in small groups.
Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) This instrument is
designed to measure different approaches to creativity, problem solving, and
decision making. It provides a score on a continuum ranging from highly adaptive
to highly innovative. “Adaptors” are regarded as those who produce ideas based
on stretching existing agreed parameters, that is, improving and doing better.
“Innovators” are assumed to be more likely to reconstruct the problem, expanding
beyond current paradigms, that is, doing things differently. The questions take the
following form: “How easy or difficult do you find it to present yourself,
consistently, over a long period as a person who is patient?”
Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD-Self) This
instrument is designed to measure self-perception of three aspects of leadership
behavior: style, style range, and style adaptability or effectiveness. It is based on
the Hersey-Blanchard (1977) situational theory of leadership that distinguishes
between the amount of task direction and the amount of socio-emotional support a
leader provides, given the situation and the responsiveness of the followers or
group. A companion to the LEAD-Self is the LEAD-Other instrument, which
asks a respondent to describe the leadership behavior of another person.
Terminal and Instrumental Values Surveys Designed by Rokeach (1973,
1979), these surveys present students with lists of terminal values (states of
existence, e.g., a comfortable or exciting life) and instrumental values (modes of
conduct, e.g., active, ambitious, broadminded). The instruments are designed to
identify the guiding values in a student's life. Respondents are asked to compare
the values, arranged alphabetically, in terms of importance to them as guiding
principles in their lives.
Organizational Values Survey This survey presents students with a list of
values that might exist in an organization and form the climate of that
organization, e.g., achieving, balanced, caring. Students are asked to put the
alphabetically arranged values in priority order, in terms of whether they are
reflected in the organization in which they work and whether the organization
orders them in the same way.

The Army War College

The AWC has constructed a highly organized program intended to aid
career planning for officers faced with mid-career decisions. The program is
implemented during the first weeks after the student-officers arrive for their
year-long stay in Carlisle. It is guided by a career

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planning philosophy rooted in the idea of time management. Since time

management assumes that a person knows what he or she wants, it is important to
address the issue of goals: professional, family, community, and personal. To
define this set of goals, the program uses self-assessment devices as a means for
encouraging students to reflect on their goals and plans to achieve them.
Students are given a development guide that introduces them to the purposes
of the program, its philosophy, and its steps. Organized in the form of a flow
chart, the steps consist of data gathering and self-reflection (Where am I now?
Who do I think I am?), goal setting (What is most important to me?), a learning
plan (How can I achieve my life goals, and how will this year at the college
contribute to them?), feedback (Is my learning plan realistic?), and periodic
review. Each step consists of specific activities that are described in the guide.
The first step, data gathering and self-reflection, includes writing narrative
descriptions of the self-assessments of personal style (the MBTI), leadership style
(LEAD-self), problem-solving style (the KAI), and values (Rokeach terminal,
instrumental, and organizational values), as well as personal health and fitness.
(Results obtained from a survey of the effects of these instruments are presented
in the next section.) The second step, goals statement, asks students to rate the
importance and assess the feasibility of goals organized by life areas. The third
step consists of developing a learning plan designed to accomplish their goals at
the college. The fourth step, feedback, asks students to review with a faculty
adviser the goals and plans they have developed. Periodic review takes into
account possibilities for changes as the year at the AWC unfolds. And, finally,
the development guide reinforces a sense of commitment to time management by
asking students to organize their activities through careful scheduling with the
help of a daily calendar.

The National Defense University (NDU)

The NDU program is an abridged version of the program at the AWC. What
the AWC program contributes in depth of understanding of the self-evaluation
process, the NDU program contributes in breadth of participation: at the AWC,
only 10 percent of the students participate in the semester-long elective course; at
the NDU, 98 percent of the students participate in a self-assessment workshop
lasting a few hours. Like the AWC program, the NDU program also includes a
battery of self-assessment surveys and a goal-setting exercise during the first few
weeks of attendance at the university and uses the MBTI, the KAI, and a health-
fitness survey. A learning style inventory, an assessment of learning
environmental preferences, the Campbell work orientation survey, and a personal
opinions survey are administered only in the NDU program.

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Although counseling is provided to aid students through the process of

articulating their goals and work plans, the step-by-step procedures used at the
AWC are not implemented in the NDU program. A smaller program at NDU, the
Industrial College of the Armed Forces, is organized primarily around the MBTI
and its interpretation in relation to group dynamics and team building. The NDU
also offers stress-reduction clinics.

Fort Bliss
At Fort Bliss two general training courses, officer basic training and officer
advanced training, are preceded by several self-assessment inventories. A nurse
administers a health risk assessment survey and a chaplain administers a life
expectancy stress test and the MBTI. Results are discussed on a one-on-one basis
with each student, who also takes diagnostic tests for skills in such technical
areas as computer literacy and map reading.

Fort Leavenworth
The Fort Leavenworth approach to career development is based on
performance assessments that are part of a Leadership Assessment and
Development Program (LADP). The LADP combines self-assessment with the
assessments made by peers and trained assessors in nine areas: technical and
tactical proficiency, communications, professional ethics, planning, management
technology, decision making, teaching and counseling, supervision, and soldier
team development. The assessor ratings are based on actual task performances
(identified with various types of leadership positions), repeated for diverse tasks
performed by students throughout the duration of the course, and also are made
by different assessors. Some assessments are made quickly, for example,
reactions to situations can be assessed in 10 minutes; other assessments are made
over a longer period of time, for example, performing as a platoon leader on a
tactical mission. The information gathered from these assessments are
consolidated by senior assessors who prepare final assessment reports that serve
as a plan for self-development. Like students at the AWC program, students at
Fort Leavenworth engage in goal-setting exercises after a data-gathering phase.
Unlike the students at the AWC, these students are provided with performance-
based information that they can take into account in setting their goals. They are
also given an opportunity to consider performance requirements for tasks at
higher levels in the organizational hierarchy. (The issue of anticipating possible
future performance requirements is discussed above in conjunction

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with a new framework for career development.) As in the programs described

above, care is taken to ensure that the evaluations are used only by the students
for development purposes, without any implications for administrative decisions.

Survey of Effects
The four programs are similar in some respects, but they also differ.
Although they all use self-assessment and goal-setting exercises, a key difference
is between the programs that rely exclusively on self-assessment information for
counseling (AWC, NDU) and the programs that use this information as part of a
comprehensive performance evaluation that provides the basis for goal setting
and planning (Fort Leavenworth).
The committee did not undertake an evaluation of these programs. It did,
however, develop an approach to program evaluation that could serve as a model
for systematic appraisal of effects. The approach entailed a questionnaire
designed to assess several types of impacts: memory of feedback from
instruments, relative value of various parts of the program or instruments,
insights about self and others, follow-up actions in the short and long term, and
overall impact on behavior and decisions. The questionnaire was divided into
several parts, including questions about the program in general and about each of
the self-assessment instruments used in the program in particular.
A pilot study was conducted with a sample of students in the 1989-1990
class at the AWC. These students participated in the AWC career development
program during the latter part of August 1989. The questionnaires were
administered in early February 1990, permitting sufficient time for assessments
of memory and impact. The six parts consisted of questions about the overall
program and memory and impact questions about each of the instruments used in
that program and described above: the MBTI (Myers and McCaulley, 1985);
LEAD-Self (Hersey and Blanchard, 1977); KAI (Kirton, 1984); terminal and
instrumental values surveys (Rokeach, 1973, 1979); and values sought in the
organization. The set of questions asked about each instrument was roughly
parallel and concluded with a rating on a five-step scale of its impact on behavior
and decisions, ranging from “very much” to “none.” Results are summarized in
terms of percentages of responses in each of the areas assessed, followed by
concluding observations.
On Memory Virtually all respondents (97 percent) remembered having
taken the MBTI, as well as the letter symbols (97 percent) and where they
“scored” on each type scale as defined by the instrument (87 percent).

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This contrasts with 61, 68, and 68 percent recall for having taken the LEAD-Self,
the KAI, and the Rokeach inventories, respectively.2 The contrast between these
instruments in recall is more evident with regard to specific results, with only 26,
13, and 13 percent of the respondents recalling their specific leadership style,
style range, and style effectiveness, respectively. Of the respondents, 65 percent
did not remember the values they listed on either the instrumental or terminal
values survey, while very few recalled the values listed on the instrument “values I
seek in my organization” (87 percent had no recall for any of the values listed).
Specific memory for scores obtained on the KAI was better, with 65 percent of
the respondents remembering where they fell on a continuum between “highly
adaptive” and “highly innovative.”
On New Insights A large number of the respondents indicated that the
results confirmed what they already knew about themselves: 84 percent on the
MBTI feedback; 55 percent on LEAD (48 percent indicated that the results were
consistent with what supervisors or peers said about them); 65 percent on the
KAI (58 percent indicated that these results were consistent with what
supervisors and/or peers said about them); 26 percent for the Rokeach inventories
(74 percent had no answer to this question) and 48 percent for organizational
values. Few respondents indicated how any of the instruments, other than the
MBTI, were of value to them; about half of the respondents had no answer to
each of the questions asked about the specific instruments.
On Impact Eighty percent of the respondents indicated that the MBTI had
either “very much” or “some” impact on their behavior. This contrasts to 33, 29,
33, and 39 percent for the other instruments. Equally compelling are the
differences between the instruments on answers indicating “very little” or no
impact: 12 percent for the MBTI compared with 28, 36, 36, and 35 percent for
each of the other instruments. Virtually all the respondents indicated that the
MBTI made them more aware of themselves and others, with 74 percent
indicating that it caused them to change their behavior in relating to others,
although they did not indicate what changes occurred. Few respondents indicated
that any of the other instruments would lead them to make changes in their
behavior: 16 percent on the LEAD, 16 percent on the KAI, 23 percent for the
Rokeach values, and 23 percent for organizational values.
On the MBTI Clearly, this instrument had the strongest impact, with 61
percent of the respondents indicating that it was the aspect of the overall program
that they found to be most helpful. While 71 percent found the follow-up
discussion to be the most valuable part of the

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process, 23 percent thought that it was this part in particular that needed to be
improved. Interestingly, however, the MBTI made more respondents
uncomfortable (26 percent) than the other instruments (3, 3, 13, and 6 percent).
Yet this did not prevent a large number of the respondents from indicating that
they plan to take specific actions in the future based on the MBTI information (61
percent). However, further probes did not reveal what these actions were, despite
the 42 percent of respondents who indicated that they actually did take some
actions in the period between participation in the program and administration of
the questionnaire. (It is noted that this may be an inflated figure, since many of
the respondents may have been motivated by social desirability or a need for
self-justification.)
On the Program Practically all respondents (97 percent) indicated that the
program should be continued, with few specific suggestions about how it might
be improved (23 percent said that an MBTI “follow-up” should be undertaken).
While seeming to be satisfied with the program, few respondents indicated
specific actions that they plan to take as a result of participation. With regard to
aspects of the program that they viewed as being least helpful, about half had no
answer; 16 percent said the Rokeach surveys, 13 percent said the LEAD survey,
and 9 percent said that the KAI was least helpful.
These results suggest several conclusions. First, the MBTI had a very
different effect on respondents than all the other instruments: on memory, on
self-insights, and on short- and long-term planning and actions (although the
specific behavior changes were not identified). So influential was this instrument
that a number of respondents indicated that some kind of follow-up (or periodic
discussions) would be the best way of improving the program. Although probes
on the meaning of “follow-up” were not made, it would appear that it refers to
guidance on ways to use the feedback.
Second, an inconsistency in responses about the MBTI is its apparent
impact on the one hand and the indication by most respondents that it confirmed
what they already knew on the other. Perhaps it is that very confirmation that
leads to action. Dissonant or inconsistent information may have the effect of
producing either inaction or no change from previous behavior.
Third, the other instruments seemed to have little impact and unimpressive
recall. It would be interesting to probe further for explanations: for example, are
the results due to a lack of saliency of the content and topics addressed by the
instruments or due to the way they are administered and discussed in class?
Fourth, while almost all respondents found the overall AWC program

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to be valuable, few were able to be specific, especially with regard to impact on

actions or decisions.
It must be cautioned that these results may not be representative of other
populations or programs. The sample was small, from one program, and drawn
entirely from the classes taught by the program's administrator, who may have
conveyed either more or less enthusiasm for the MBTI than for other
instruments.
Despite the preliminary nature of this survey, however, it does appear that
the MBTI is a very popular instrument that leads people to consider taking
actions. It is also a widely used instrument that enjoys a large market throughout
the United States and elsewhere. For this reason, the committee decided to devote
additional attention to this instrument, the underlying theory, issues of reliability
and validity, and research on various populations and uses.

AN APPRAISAL OF THE MBTI

The committee's survey results highlight the value of the experience of
taking the MBTI from the perspective of the respondent. These remarks
underscore a wider popularity as documented in several recent publications. For
example, McCaulley (1988) estimates that the MBTI is used as a diagnostic
instrument by 1,700,000 people a year in the United States, and Moore and
Woods (1987) lists the wide variety of organizations in business, industry,
education, government, and the military that use it. It is probably fair to say that
the MBTI is the most popular “self-insight, insight into others” instrument in use
today. Unfortunately, however, the popularity of the instrument is not coincident
with supportive research results. This section summarizes available research and
addresses the question of why there is a discrepancy between its popularity and
the lack of evidence for its validity. Specifically, we focus on issues of reliability,
validity, and effectiveness of applications; for a more detailed treatment of these
and related issues, see Thayer (1988).

Reliability
A number of reliability studies of the MBTI have been conducted. Corrected
split-half and alpha reliability coefficients for continuous scores on each of the
attitudes and functions typically range from .75 to .85, with some variation on the
different scales (Bittle, 1987; Carlson, 1985; Myers and McCaulley, 1985;
DeVito, 1985; Carlyn, 1977). While these results are acceptable, they do not
address the key theoretical issue of the MBTI, which is stability of type. Test-
retest reliabilities of type designations are more relevant. Myers and McCaulley
(1985) report

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test-retest reliabilities from 11 different samples. In these samples, between 24

and 61 percent of the respondents showed stability of type, with a median of 40
percent. A change in only one of the four categories in the type designation
occurred in 27-44 percent of the respondents in these samples, with a median of
37 percent. McCarley and Carskadon (1983) report only 47 percent of their
respondents retained their initial types over a period of 5 weeks. Changes in the
type designations of these magnitudes suggest caution in classifying people in
these ways and then making decisions that would influence their careers or
personal lives. A more plausible approach would be based on the assumption that
most people change over time as a result of new experiences. Self-assessment
instruments like those represented by the MBTI are likely, at best, to capture a
person's current state and, therefore, should not be considered typologies.
With regard to scale independence, Carlyn (1977) found that three of the
four MBTI scales—extraversion-introversion (I-E), sensing-intuition (S-N), and
thinking-feeling (T-F)—are relatively independent. The fourth scale, judgment-
perception (J-P), was related to the sensing-intuition scale with correlations
ranging from .23 to .48 in 11 samples: sensors tended to be judgers, while
intuitors tended to be perceivers in these samples. She interprets these results as
support for the theory on which the instrument is based, which posits only three
dimensions.

Validity
A number of different types of studies address the issue of validity:
correspondences with self-typing, correlations with other instruments, behavior in
experimental situations, and differences in MBTI profiles by occupation. The
evidence from these studies is particularly relevant to the type of validity referred
to as “construct validity.”
One approach to validation consists of comparing judgments made by
analysts who are familiar with the Jungian philosophy underlying the instrument
with analysts who are unfamiliar with that philosophy. Bradway's (1964) study
showed differential correspondences between the self-typing and MBTI-typing
for a sample of Jungian analysts: 100 percent agreement for the I-E comparisons,
68 percent for the S-N comparisons, 61 percent for the T-F comparisons, and 43
percent on all three dimensions in one study; 96, 75, 72, and 43 percent,
respectively, in another study. Similar results were obtained in the correlational
study reported by Stricker and Ross (1964). Less impressive results were obtained
in studies using subjects who were less familiar with Jungian theory. Low
correlations between self-typing and MBTI-typing were reported in the studies
reviewed by Cohen et al. (1981). Subjects

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in these studies were graduate students trained to use the Jungian typology for
conducting interviews with other students.
Myers and McCaulley (1985) present correlational data from 20 studies
showing relationships between MBTI scales and a wide variety of other
instruments. They concluded that the I-E scale has good construct validity: it has
high correlations with comparable scales of other instruments and low
correlations with instruments designed to represent other constructs. In contrast,
the S-N and T-F scales show relatively weak validity, with only moderate
correlations with other instruments designed to measure similar constructs. Since
these findings are based largely on high school and college student samples,
however, caution is advised in attempting to generalize from them.
Several studies examined relationships between the I-E scale and observed
behavior in experimental situations. The Carskadon (1979) study found
differences between extraverts and introverts on some aspects of self-presentation
during a “political talk,” but these findings were not replicated in another study
that was done more carefully by the same author and colleagues (Vargo et al.,
1986). Two other behavioral studies show partial support for the I-E scale: Moore
and Carskadon (1984) found that their extraverts were more likely than introverts
to observe people in the environment but not things. And Shapiro and Alexander
(1969) found that extraverts preferred to wait with others for the occurrence of a
fearful situation while the introverts preferred being alone.
Large data sets have been developed by Van Velsor (1988) and Myers and
McCaulley (1985) on type preferences for people in different occupations. In
general, sales people, entertainers, counselors, and managers and administrators
have higher percentages of extraverts, while librarians, archivists, computer
specialists, and medical doctors have higher percentages of introverts; farmers,
clerical workers, and military personnel have higher proportions of sensors while
social scientists, artists, counselors, and lawyers have higher proportions of
intuitors. Some of the comparisons are presented as combinations of types: for
example, INFPs have higher than expected proportions of counselors, clinical
psychologists, writers, and journalists, or ENTJs will attract attorneys, managers,
sales personnel, and engineers.
The temptation to use these data for vocational counseling should be
tempered by three methodological problems. First, there is weak discrimination
among occupations due to an overlap between the types and preferred
occupations. Second, there is a lack of attention to normative data: for example,
12.4 percent of elementary teachers are ESFJs, but the same percentage of a
random sample of U.S. women are also ESFJs. Third, no evidence has been
presented on relationships to performance in those occupations. Given these
problems, the types may simply be an

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example of stereotypes. Despite these problems, the MBTI is becoming

increasingly popular as a tool for vocational guidance.
The evidence summarized in this section raises questions about the validity
of the MBTI. However, many users of the instrument have claimed that its value
lies not in its diagnostic accuracy, which is problematic, but in its probative
guidance. Respondents often emphasize the increased sensitivity gained from the
discussions generated by MBTI feedback. It would seem that such gains could
contribute to enhanced performance. Unfortunately, neither the gains in
sensitivity nor the impact of those gains on performance have been documented
by research. Nor has the instrument been validated in a long-term study of
successful and unsuccessful careers. Lacking such evidence, it is a curiosity why
the instrument is used so widely, particularly in large organizations.

Effectiveness of Applications
On the basis of a review of the published literature, Thayer (1988) concludes
that most studies of the MBTI are inadequate and that, overall, there is a lack of
systematic research on the many applications of the MBTI in organizations. His
review covers studies on educational applications, training and development
applications, and team-building applications. He notes three methodological
criticisms of the research: the reporting of data is inconsistent and incomplete;
statistical analyses are often incompletely described and may violate convention
(e.g., no overall test of significance is calculated before detailed comparisons are
made and no attention is given to appropriate baseline data in the analyses); and
subjects or judges are often made aware of the hypotheses being tested. These
problems prevent drawing conclusions from the studies, many of which are
published in the Journals of the Center for the Applications of Psychological
Type, Inc. (Journal of Psychological Type and Research in Psychological Type);
we also note that, to date, few studies appear in mainstream research journals.
It may well be the case, however, that a more complete picture would be
presented by taking into account the unpublished literature, such as technical
reports, presentations, and dissertations. While such a review may indeed present
a more complete assessment of the instrument, it is unlikely to offer a more
optimistic appraisal. Thayer concluded that the relatively small community of
MBTI researchers visible in the published literature are likely to have been also
involved in the unpublished work. In most cases, a carefully designed and
executed dissertation study or technical report would become a published article
or be cited in the literature. Rather than search for more literature, it would seem
more prudent to encourage better research on these issues.

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Despite this overall appraisal, there are a few promising lines of research on
the MBTI that could be further developed. Studies by Hoffman et al. (1981) and
by Eggins (cited in Lawrence, 1984) suggest that the MBTI might be regarded as a
measure of “learning style”: the Hoffman et al. (1981) study shows that the
dropout rate of extraverted students in a computer-assisted military course could
be reduced by adding more group discussion sessions and providing
minilectures; the Eggins' study shows that different types performed better when
concepts were structured according to one or another approach referred to as
inductive, deductive, or concrete. Studies by Blaylock (1983) and Brocato and
Seaberg (1987) show that teams composed of mixed or complementary types
performed better on various simulated tasks than teams of the same type. Since no
attempt has been made to replicate these studies, the results must be regarded as
only suggestive. Another line of investigation, developed by Yeakley (1982,
1983), indicates that similar styles communicate more effectively than dissimilar
styles. More recent work by the same investigator (Yeakley, 1985) failed to
replicate the earlier results, leading him to suggest that further tests of this
hypothesis await reconciliation of the different results.
The lack of a supportive research foundation for the MBTI leads the
committee to recommend that the instrument not be used in career counseling
programs until its validity is supported by research. A positive recommendation
would thus depend on the accumulation of evidence from studies designed
according to rigorous methodological standards and conducted by a broad base of
researchers from psychology, organizational behavior, and education. And even
if the evidence is negative, the instrument could serve useful purposes: for
example, it might be used to teach about the uncertainty of the category
assignments and other deficits uncovered by the research.
Finally, it would seem appropriate to address the troublesome discrepancy
between research results (a lack of proven worth) and popularity. What accounts
for the popularity of an instrument that is not yet supported by research? Several
reasons can be suggested. From the respondents' perspective, the MBTI provides
generally positive feedback: the descriptors do not have clinical implications, they
are presented as unique positive attributes, and they are sufficiently vague to
apply to a large number of people in a wide variety of situations. Moreover, the
opportunity to learn more about oneself and others in a nonthreatening
environment (or to believe one is doing so) is an incentive for participation. It is
not difficult to understand how such positive experiences can be a basis for
popularity. From the perspective of organizational development, the instrument is
a vehicle for addressing problems that can be resolved through guided
discussion. Many professionals

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DEVELOPING CAREERS 101

assume that the changes they observe during the sessions will transfer to the job
setting and persist over time. And from the perspective of the instrument's
developers, the profits from an audience eager for self-improvement encourages
them to market the instrument aggressively; aggressive marketing—complete
with type coffee mugs, t-shirts, pins, license plates—has apparently increased the
number of consumers worldwide.
This phenomenon is not new to the committee and has been discussed in
some detail with regard to other techniques that purport to enhance performance
(see Druckman and Swets, 1988). Nonetheless, the popularity of this instrument
in the absence of proven scientific worth is troublesome. As with the other
techniques considered, career counselors are advised to take into account the
reservations discussed in this section when considering the MBTI as part of a
counseling package.

CONCLUSIONS
Career Planning Decisions on the use and value of specific career
counseling and self-assessment instruments in organizational settings should be
made within the context of a planned and systematic, organization-wide approach
to career development. This applies to the Army as well as any other large,
complex organization. The framework outlined in this chapter should be
developed further in conjunction with relevant research: the longitudinal and
cross-sectional studies suggested in the chapter are recommended with special
attention to the structure of military organizations. Evaluations should be made of
the cost-effectiveness of alternative career intervention activities with regard to
the timing of the intervention and the methods used by the intervenors.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator At this time, there is not sufficient,
well-designed research to justify the use of the MBTI in career counseling
programs. Much of the current evidence is based on inadequate methodologies.
Better evaluation studies, conducted according to rigorous methodological
standards, are recommended. One type of useful evaluation would be to compare
“successful” and “unsuccessful” careers. Positive results obtained from these
studies, if replicated with different samples, could justify the use of the MBTI
instrument in career counseling programs. Other self-assessment instruments
currently in use or contemplated for use in counseling programs should also be
subjected to the same rigorous evaluation.
Research on the effects of guided discussion, such as the discussions held on
feedback from the MBTI or other self-assessment instruments is recommended.
Such research should distinguish between subjective reactions

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DEVELOPING CAREERS 102

to the experience and observed effects on subsequent actions and career

performance.
We must, however, conclude this chapter on a cautionary note with
reference to the Army. The type of career planning recommended by the
committee emphasizes opportunities for crucial career experiences, especially
early in a career (see proposition 2, above), but the transient character of most
jobs in the Army, due largely to incentives for promoting officers with many
different jobs, may militate against such opportunities. Frequent job changes may
also lead to both job and career dissatisfaction and to personal or family
disruptions. It will be necessary to take into account the impact of these factors on
decisions made for long-term career development.

NOTES

1. Substantial portions of this section are based on a commissioned paper by London (1990).
2. Respondents' actual scores could not be obtained. The remembered scores, used in the analysis,
may not be the same as the actual scores.

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Carlyn, M. 1977 An assessment of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Journal of Personality

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London, M., and S.A. Stumpf 1982 Managing Careers. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
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105

PART III
Altering Mental States

IN THIS PART OF THE REPORT WE DISCUSSseveral approaches to the alteration of a

person's mental state, presumably in order to enhance performance. The emphasis
in this part is on changes in feelings and attitudes, rather than on changes in
knowledge, as in Part II.
The four chapters represent a sampling of procedures or strategies intended
to accomplish such changes. Each approach is the subject of a considerable body
of research designed to evaluate effects or to provide an understanding of the
underlying psychological mechanisms responsible for the effects. Each is also
used widely in applied settings in which performance problems receive special
attention. Much of the relevant research is summarized with an eye on
implications for practice.
Of all the approaches to altering mental states, the one that is currently
receiving the most attention is subliminal perception and learning. Chapter 6
addresses the idea of subliminal learning through audio cassette tapes, which has
been widely marketed and promoted as a solution to a host of performance and
attitudinal problems. In this chapter the committee evaluates these assertions in
the context of psychological theory and available experimental evidence.
Chapter 7 considers meditation, a time-honored practice engaged in by
millions of people who share the mystical religious traditions of Eastern
countries. Meditation has also gained popularity in the West, where claims have
been made for it as a technique that enhances

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106

performance. A number of studies have been conducted that address these

claims. The evidence discussed in this chapter leads to conclusions about its
effectiveness.
Pain as both a physiological and psychological reaction is the topic of
Chapter 8. Encouraging evidence from psychological studies suggest ways to
manage the feelings associated with acute and chronic pain. If effective, these
strategies can increase a person's chances to survive under very difficult
circumstances. They can also contribute more generally to an improved quality of
life. In this chapter the committee surveys what is known about pain and its
management, concluding with some guidance on approaches likely to be
effective.
Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 deal with the intriguing topic of deception and its
detection. We have learned quite a bit from experimental studies about the
physical manifestations of deception. The literature surveyed demonstrates that a
number of nonverbal behaviors signal when a person is lying. The review also
calls attention to problems of detection and offers some strategies for improving
accuracy. The insights derived from these studies may be quite useful for training
people for positions in which sensitivity to possible dissimulation is essential.
This is not to argue, however, that these insights are sufficiently definitive to be a
basis for developing a training manual. Expanding the concept further, Chapter 10
discusses several broad frameworks for understanding the conditions under which
individuals from different cultural backgrounds are likely to be caught lying.
Each of the chapters raises a number of interesting questions for research
done in both laboratory or field settings.

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 107

6
Subliminal Self-Help

Building Self-Confidence is the title of an audio cassette tape manufactured

and marketed by the Gateways Institute of Ojai, California. When the tape is
played at a comfortable listening volume, all one hears is the rhythmic ebb and
flow of a tropical ocean surf and the faint cry of gulls circling the shoreline.
At least, that is all one hears consciously. According to an accompanying
brochure, the tape also contains dozens of positive suggestions or affirmations,
such as: “I am a secure person. I believe in myself more and more every day, and
my confidence naturally rises to the surface in every situation.” Each of these
statements is repeated hundreds of times in the course of the 1-hour program.
Because the suggestions are masked by the ocean sounds, they cannot be
perceived consciously. Nevertheless, according to the same brochure, these
suggestions can be and are perceived subconsciously, and therein lies their
purported power. The contention is that consciously imperceptible or subliminal
messages
reach the subconscious mind, which is the seat of all memories, knowledge
and emotions. The unconscious mind has a powerful influence on conscious
actions, thought, feelings, habits, and behaviors, and actually controls and guides
your life. If you want to make real, lasting changes and improvements in any area
of your life, you must reach the subconscious mind where the changes begin.
For a busy person who lacks self-confidence and lives on a tight budget, the
Building Self-Confidence tape in question would seem to have strong appeal. It
retails for $12.95 in the United States and, like several other Gateways Institute
tapes, comes in a small carton carrying the advertisement: “Subliminal tapes
work, so you don't have to. . . .

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Simply play the tapes while you work, play, drive, read, exercise, relax, watch
TV, or even as you sleep. No concentration is required for the tapes to be
effective. They work whether you pay attention to them or not.” The brochure
also notes:
A script is provided with each tape so you know the exact recorded
subliminal message. It is not necessary to read the script while listening to the
tape, although to enhance effectiveness, we suggest you use statements on the
script as positive affirmations, repeating them to yourself from time to time.
Many have found it very helpful to read the script aloud once each day just before
going to bed at night.
To maximize results, play your subliminal tape at least once a day. The more
often the tape is played, the faster and greater the effect. Because each person is
unique, individual results will vary from person to person. Results are sometimes
experienced within the first few playings, while in other cases it may take a few
days or several weeks to see changes. Be assured that if you faithfully use the
tape on a regular, daily basis, results will come.
Building Self-Confidence is but one of many subliminal self-help products
sold by Gateways Institute, and Gateways is but one of many sources of such
merchandise. According to one estimate (Oldenburg, 1990a), about 2,000
individuals or companies in America and Canada now produce subliminal self-
help products for retail sale. That there is money to be made selling such products
is suggested by a second estimate (Natale, 1988) that in 1987 American
consumers purchased $50,000,000 worth of subliminal tapes intended for their
personal improvement, a 10 percent increase over 1986 sales. Thus the
subliminal industry is big and, by most accounts, getting bigger (see McGarvey,
1989; Moore, 1982; Natale, 1988; Oldenburg, 1990a).
It is easy to see why, for several reasons. First, the premise underlying
subliminal suggestion—that a person can effortlessly accomplish in a matter of
months or even weeks what others struggle but fail to do in a lifetime—is nearly
irresistible (see Oldenburg, 1990a).
Second, as Oldenburg (1990a) has also pointed out, the promise of
subliminal suggestion seems as inviting as its premise. To clarify, consider the
catalog of products produced by Potentials Unlimited of Grand Rapids,
Michigan. This catalog cites more than 100 subliminal programs that are claimed
to aid people lose weight, stop smoking, quit drinking, think creatively, make
friends, reduce pain (whether due to arthritis, migraines, or premenstrual
syndrome), improve vision, restore hearing (a particularly difficult goal to attain
through subliminal auditory suggestions, or so it would seem), cure acne,
conquer fears (of death, driving, or flying, among others), read faster, speak
effectively, handle criticism, alleviate depression, assuage guilt, project astrally,
heal psychically, mentally travel through space or time or both (e.g., imagine
visiting Atlantis or searching for hidden treasure in the Sphinx), and become a

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 109

better bowler. Though this partial listing provides a sense of the remarkably broad
range of problems and issues that are allegedly amenable to hidden messages, it
does not capture the subtle yet seemingly crucial differences that exist among the
various subliminal programs· For example, Potentials Unlimited offers two
programs, Divorce—Yes (“If you seek the divorce, this tape can free you from the
other person.”) and Divorce—No (“If you don't want a divorce, yet have no
choice, quiet your fears and regain confidence to live and love again·”): one can
only hope that the company exercises as much care and caution in filling
customer orders as they presumably do in producing their subliminal tapes, for
the consequences of a mix-up might be catastrophic.
Yet a third reason for the rapid growth of the subliminal industry is tied to
both the proliferation of new products and the development of new technologies.
Though “pure” subliminal audiotapes—those containing virtually no audible
messages—remain a fixture in the marketplace, “mixed” tapes, featuring
subliminal messages on one side and supraliminal suggestions for guided
relaxation and visualization on the other, are becoming increasingly popular. In
both cases subliminality is achieved either by the traditional method of masking
suggestions with the sound of music or waves or by the newer technique of
speech compression, whereby the voice track bearing the suggestions (as many as
100,000 per hour) is accelerated until it becomes an unintelligible high-pitched
whine. Although speech-compression technology is disavowed by some
companies, including Gateways Institute, it is endorsed by others, including the
Psychodynamics Research Institute in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, a firm that is also
notable for being among the first to sell subliminal programs for children,
including a potty-training tape for toddlers (see Oldenburg, 1990a).
To complement their line of subliminal audio programs, many companies
now also offer an array of subliminal video tapes, in which suggestions are shown
so briefly that they cannot be consciously seen. This procedure is part of the
latest high-tech subliminal innovation, called MindVision, that was introduced in
November 1989 by Gateways Institute. As described by Oldenburg (1990b:C5):
. . . this “inconspicuous box” hooks into the television and VCR to flash
visual subliminal messages “hundreds of thousands of times each hour” on the TV
screen while repeating auditory subliminal affirmations all during regular TV
shows. “The lazy man's answer to a better life,” Gateways boasts.
But is it really? More to the point, what evidence is there that mass-marketed
subliminal self-help products are effective in practice? Even more fundamental, is
there any scientific evidence that such products, in principle, could be effective?

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SUBJECTIVELY PERCEPTIBLE VERSUS OBJECTIVELY

DETECTABLE STIMULI
The question of effectiveness in principle has been addressed by Merikle
(1988). In the introduction to his article, he remarks that, although the reality of
subliminal perception continues to be a contentious issue in scientific circles,
“recent research has led to a growing consensus that subliminal perception is a
valid phenomenon that can be demonstrated under certain well-defined
conditions (Merikle, 1988:357).1 The research to which Merikle refers has
revealed two impo rtant observations that, taken together, provide strong support
for subliminal perception. First, performance on a variety of psychological tasks
—for instance, deciding whether a string of letters forms a word (e.g., Marcel,
1983), whether a word has a good or bad meaning (Greenwald et al., 1989),
whether an ambiguously described person is friendly or hostile (Bargh and
Pietromonaco, 1982), or whether a geometric shape seems light or dark (Mandler
et al., 1987) is influenced by information that people claim they did not
consciously perceive. Second, information presented above and below the level
of claimed awareness has qualitatively different effects on performance (e.g.,
Dixon, 1971; Cheesman and Merikle, 1986; Groeger, 1984; Jacoby and
Whitehouse, 1989). The importance of the second observation lies in the fact
that, given the demonstration of differential (possibly opposite) outcomes, “one
can be certain that effects observed in the supposedly unaware condition were
not actually due to the subjects' being aware of an item without the
experimenter's detecting that awareness” (Jacoby and Whitehouse, 1989:127).
Why the emphasis on claimed awareness? The answer is suggested by the
results of a study by Cheesman and Merikle (1984) in which subjects were asked
to name, as quickly as possible, a “target” color (a patch of blue, for instance)
that was preceded by either a congruent or an incongruent color-word
“prime” (the word blue as opposed to, say, green). In previous studies using
visible color words as primes (e.g., Dyer and Severance, 1973), it had been shown
that a target color is named faster if it is preceded by a congruent than by an
incongruent prime. Whether color words rendered invisible by backward masking
also produce a reliable “priming effect” in the color-naming task was an issue of
central concern in Cheesman and Merikle's study.
To investigate this issue, Cheesman and Merikle measured color-naming
latencies under three threshold conditions: suprathreshold, objective, and
subjective. Each of these conditions comprised many individual trials, and every
trial conformed to the same sequence of events in rapid succession: (1)
presentation of a congruent or an incongruent color word prime, (2) presentation
of a central mask composed of random letters, (3) display of the to-be-named
target color.

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 111

The critical difference among the conditions was the duration of the interval
separating onset of the prime from onset of the mask: a constant 300 milliseconds
(msec) in the suprathreshold condition, an average of 56 msec in the subjective-
threshold condition, and an average of 30 msec in the objective-threshold
condition. Cheesman and Merikle settled on these intervals, or stimulus onset
asynchronies (SOAs), by pretesting the subjects on the ability to detect which one
of four color-word primes had been presented on a particular trial.
Results of this pretesting revealed that at the SOA corresponding to the
suprathreshold condition, subjects stated that they could see the primes clearly,
and they therefore estimated their performance on the test of four-alternative
forced-choice target detectability would be perfect (100 percent)—which it was.
At the SOA corresponding to the objective threshold, subjects indicated that they
could not see the primes, and they therefore anticipated scoring at chance (25
percent)—which they did—on the test of target detectability. At the SOA
corresponding to the subjective threshold, subjects again claimed that they could
not consciously perceive the primes, and they therefore again anticipated scoring
at chance as to which particular target color word had been presented on a
particular trial. In actuality, however, their random “guesses” were, on average,
66 percent correct—a level of detection performance that plainly exceeds chance.
As the detectability of the primes varied across threshold conditions, so too
did the size of the priming effect observed in the color-naming task. In the
suprathreshold condition, a substantial priming effect was found (on average,
target colors were named about 95 msec faster when primed by congruent than by
incongruent color words); in the subjective-threshold condition, the effect was
smaller but remained significant (mean difference of roughly 40 msec); and in the
objective-threshold condition, the effect was virtually nonexistent (mean
difference of less than 10 msec).2 These results, in addition to those relating to
tasks other than color naming (see Eriksen, 1960, 1986; Merikle, 1988), suggest
that subjectively imperceptible but objectively detectable stimuli can affect
certain actions. As such, these results are consistent with Merikle's (1988:360)
conception of subliminal perception as “perception in the absence of subjective
confidence.”
There is one advantage of viewing subliminal perception this way (Merikle,
1988:360):
It eliminates much of the mysticism previously associated with the concept.
No longer is it necessary to consider subliminal perception as implying the
existence of some “supersensitive” unconscious perceptual system. Rather, the
evidence simply suggests that we can sometimes discriminate among stimulus
states, as indicated by our verbal responses, even when, based on our subjective
phenomenal experiences,

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 112

we have no confidence that sufficient stimulus information was perceived to

guide response selection. Thus, according to this view, subliminal perception
occurs whenever we can objectively discriminate among possible stimulus states
but have no subjective confidence as to the correctness of our decisions.
A second advantage concerns the question, posed earlier, of whether it is
possible in principle for mass-marketed subliminal self-help products to produce
their intended effects. By Merikle's (1988:360) account:
When subliminal perception is viewed as a subjective state, there is a very
clear specification of the minimum stimulus condition that must be satisfied
before sufficient information is perceived, either consciously or unconsciously, to
influence higher-level decision processes. Since, according to this view,
subliminal perception reflects an absence of subjective confidence when
responding discriminately to a stimulus, the minimum condition necessary for
demonstrating subliminal perception is the presence of a detectable stimulus.
To determine whether subliminal self-help products, specifically, subliminal
audio cassettes, meet this “minimum stimulus condition,” Merikle (1988)
performed two types of studies. First, if the cassettes actually contain covert
messages, then frequency changes characteristic of spoken speech should be
evident in spectrograms or “voice prints” derived from the tapes. Of the 40-odd
spectrograms that Merikle culled from four subliminal audio cassettes (each
produced by a different company), none showed any signs of hidden speech.
Though provocative, these null results are difficult to interpret because
spectrographic analysis may not be capable of detecting very weak speech (e.g.,
at average signal-to-noise ratios of`10 to `20dB, see Borden and Harris, 1984).
In addition, it is conceivable that in comparison with a sound spectrograph, the
human auditory system is more sensitive to the detection and decoding of weak,
degraded signals (i:e., embedded messages). In recognition of this possibility,
Merikle (1988) performed a second type of study in which the human auditory
system, rather than a sound spectrograph, served as the measuring instrument. In
this psychophysical research, subjects were repeatedly tested for the ability to
discriminate between two commercially produced cassettes that were identical
except that, according to the manufacturer, one contained subliminal messages
and the other did not. Merikle found that the subjects could not reliably
distinguish between the “message” and the “no-message” cassettes, and he
concluded (1988:370):
Taken together, the empirical results lead to the inescapable conclusion that
the widely marketed subliminal cassettes do not contain any embedded messages
that could conceivably influence behavior. This conclusion is supported both by
the results of the spectrographic analyses indicating that these cassettes do not
contain any identifiable embedded speech and by the results of the
psychophysical studies

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 113

indicating that these cassettes do not contain any embedded signals whatsoever
that can be detected under controlled conditions. Given that consistent empirical
support for subliminal perception has only been found under conditions that allow
stimulus detection, these subliminal audio cassettes do not satisfy the most
minimal conditions for demonstrating subliminal perception.
An ardent advocate of subliminal self-help might challenge this conclusion
on two grounds: (1) some, perhaps many, of the vast number of the audiotapes
(or any or all video tapes) that Merikle did not test do meet his minimum
condition for demonstrating subliminal perception and thus could conceivably
affect behavior as advertised; (2) some, perhaps many, of the people who buy and
use these tapes say that “silent treatments” do them good (see McGarvey, 1989;
VandenBoogert, 1984). We first consider in detail the second point and then
discuss the implications of the first point.

MOBILIZATION, EFFORT JUSTIFICATION, AND

EXPECTANCY EFFECTS
As noted by Oldenburg (1990a), many marketers of subliminal self-
improvement products try to attract new customers by publicizing the ringing
recommendations of past patrons. Oldenburg (1990a) cites several of these
endorsements, and others may be found in Discoveries Through Inner Quests, a
promotional magazine for the Gateways Institute. In the Winter-Spring 1990
issue of this magazine, a woman from Massachusetts writes: “Bless you! I'm
listening to my tape on pain reduction. It is marvelous. I had almost instant relief
from pain on first using it a few days ago. It's much cheaper than a doctor and
much better than medication. Phenomenal is what it has done for my spirits.” In
the same issue, a California woman reports “dramatic results” in her eating habits
after purchasing the subliminal tape titled Stop Eating Junk Food, and a man from
Maine states that shortly after receiving the tape Wealth and Prosperity, he got a
new job and tripled his old salary.
Though there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of these testimonials, there
are several reasons to question the conviction that subliminal suggestions are in
any way responsible for, or even play a part in, any self-perceived improvements
in behavior. In the first place, by buying and using a subliminal self-help product,
one demonstrates not only a desire for personal enhancement, but also a
commitment to change one's ways. The very act of making such a commitment,
of mobilizing oneself into action, may be therapeutic in its own right, in much the
same way that some people realize marked improvements in behavior after they
register for, but before they receive, individual psychotherapy (see Rachman and
Wilson, 1980). Compared with undertaking psycho

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therapy, the commitment expressed through the purchase and use of a subliminal
product is obviously much less. After all, such products are designed to work “so
you don't have to,” and its therapeutic potential is correspondingly much more
modest in principle. Indeed, the commitment entailed in employing subliminal
suggestions to, say, enhance one's popularity and make new friends seems
comparable to the commitment involved in spending an hour every day for a
month at the beach to accomplish these same goals. After visiting the beach on a
regular basis, or following the steady use of a “be more popular” subliminal tape,
one might in fact acquire some new friends. But surely this outcome is no more
attributable to the properties of the beach than it is to the contents of the
subliminal tape. Rather, responsibility rests with the person's decision to do
something—go to the beach or play the subliminal tape—that might help him or
her win friends. Consequently, the imaginary “beach therapy” might be every bit
as effective, or ineffective, as the real “subliminal programs” that are purported to
improve one's popularity.
A second, related reason that subliminal tapes, even those containing no
detectable embedded messages, may seem salutary has to do with the social
psychological phenomenon of effort justification: the finding that the harder we
work at something, the more we like it (see Penrod, 1983). After buying a
subliminal tape and using it daily for several weeks, as most manufacturers
advise, many people would be reluctant to admit to themselves or others that they
had wasted their time and money. Instead, they would be motivated to detect
some sort of change in some aspect of their lives, in order to rationalize their
investment (see Conway and Ross, 1984).
Yet a third reason for the possible effect of tapes without detectable
messages, perhaps the most important, relates to expectancy effects. By way of
background, most readers are familiar with the story of how, in 1957, an
advertising expert named James Vicary subliminally presented the statements
“Eat Popcorn and Drink Coke” to unsuspecting viewers of the film Picnic,
resulting in an impulsive rush to the refreshment stand. Many readers may not
know, however, that years later Vicary admitted that his study was a hoax
intended to increase revenues for his foundering advertising firm (see Weir,
1984). Vicary's “demonstration” sparked a storm of controversy (see Moore,
1982, 1988; Pratkanis and Greenwald, 1988) and stimulated many investigations
of subliminal advertising. One of these was a study, brought to our attention by
Pratkanis et al. (1990), that was conducted by the Canadian Broadcast
Corporation in 1958. As described by Pratkanis et al. (1990:5):
During a popular Sunday night television show viewers were told about the
Vicary EAT POPCORN/DRINK COKE STUDY and were informed that the
station would

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 115

do a test of subliminal persuasion (although the content of the message was not
revealed). The message “Phone Now” was then flashed subliminally on screen
352 times. Telephone company records indicated that phone usage did not
increase nor did local television stations report an increase in calls. However,
almost half of the nearly 500 letters sent in by viewers indicated that they felt
compelled to “do something” and many felt an urge to eat or drink. It appears
that expectations created by the Vicary study influenced what people believed had
happened.
That subliminal methods of personal improvement, like those involved in
public advertising, are susceptible to strong expectancy effects is a point made
plain in a recent study by Pratkanis et al. (1990).3 Through ads placed in local
newspapers, these researchers recruited volunteers who were especially interested
in the potential value of subliminal self-help tapes and who would probably be
similar to those most likely to purchase such products.
On the first day of the study, the subjects completed a battery of tests to
measure self-esteem and memory ability. Every participant was then given one or
two commercially produced subliminal audiotapes: one claimed by the
manufacturer to contain suggestions for improving self esteem (e.g., “I radiate an
inner sense of confidence”), the other claimed to contain suggestions for
improving memory (e.g., “My ability to remember and recall is increasing
daily”). On both tapes, the suggestions were recorded behind background
classical music, so as to render them subliminal. The intriguing aspect of this
study was that only a randomly selected one-half of the subjects actually got the
tape they thought they were getting, one-quarter received the memory
enhancement tape mislabeled as one to improve their self-esteem, and one-
quarter received a self-esteem tape mislabeled “memory improvement.”
The subjects took their tapes home and listened to them every day for 5
weeks, the period recommended by the manufacturer for achieving maximum
benefit. After 5 weeks, the subjects were asked to indicate whether they believed
the tapes had been effective, and they also completed a second battery of self-
esteem and memory tests.
The tests showed that the tapes had no appreciable effect, positive or
negative, on any measure of either self-esteem or memory, but many of the
subjects believed otherwise. Approximately one-half of those who thought they
had received the self-esteem tape—regardless of whether they had actually
received it or the memory tape—stated that their self-esteem had risen; similarly,
about one-half of those who presumed, correctly or not, that they had received the
memory tape maintained that their memory had improved as a result of listening
to the tape. In light of those results, the title selected by Pratkanis and his
associates to describe their study—“What you expect is what you believe, but not
necessarily what you get”—seems most appropriate.

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 116

CONCLUSIONS
There are some well-documented psychological reasons that subliminal
self-help products may appear to work, even if they contain no detectable
embedded messages and thus fail to satisfy the “minimum stimulus condition”
set by Merikle (1988) for demonstrating subliminal perception. It is possible, of
course, that products now available in the marketplace do meet the criterion of
detectability (after all, Merikle tested no video displays and only a handful of
audio cassettes) or that such products could be engineered in the future. Suppose,
for the sake of argument, that one were to identify or invent a subliminal self-
help-product that complies with the minimum prerequisite. What then?
Clearly, the mere presence of objectively detectable messages would by no
means ensure the product's effectiveness. Recent research does suggest that
subjectively imperceptible stimuli may have short-term effects on the
performance of such relatively simple tasks as color naming or lexical decision
under controlled laboratory conditions. But one cannot and should not infer from
this research that long-term changes in complex actions, cognitions, or emotions
—such as smoking, self-confidence, or depression—can be effected by exposure
to subliminal suggestions under such varied real-life circumstances as reading,
relaxing, or even sleeping. Such effects, if any, remain to be conclusively
established and rigorously explored.
Rather, as Merikle (1988) has remarked, the presence of detectable
messages would only imply that it may be worthwhile to carry out carefully
controlled studies of the possible effects of such messages. Such studies would
need to address a very long list of questions, some of which have been raised in
prior research on subliminal perception. For instance, are there significant
individual differences in peoples' sensitivity to the embedded but detectable
messages (e.g., Sackeim et al., 1977)? Might one's receptivity to such messages
be enhanced by the adoption of a passive attitude or frame of mind (e.g., Dixon,
1971)? Do subliminal messages serve only to amplify preexisting tendencies or
can they induce novel ways of acting, feeling, or thinking (e.g., Kihlstrom,
1987)? Are there demonstrable qualitative differences between the effects of
presenting one and the same message above as opposed to below the subjective
threshold of awareness (e.g., Cheesman and Merikle, 1986; Dixon, 1986)?
Finding answers to these and many related questions will doubtless prove to be a
difficult and demanding task, but perhaps a rewarding one as well. At this time,
however, on the basis of the committee's review of the available research
literature, we conclude that there is neither theoretical foundation nor
experimental evidence to support claims that subliminal self-help audiotapes
enhance human performance.

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SUBLIMINAL SELF-HELP 117

NOTES

1. In the interests of brevity and in keeping with our current focus on subliminal perception as a
commercial means of promoting self-improvement, neither the history nor the current status of
subliminal perception as a scientific concept is discussed in detail here. Readers interested in these
issues should consult Adams (1957), Cheesman and Merikle (1984, 1986), Dixon (1971, 1981),
Eriksen (1960), Goldiamond (1958), Greenwald et al. (1989), Holender (1986), and accompanying
peer commentaries, Marcel (1983), Merikle and Cheesman (1987), Reingold and Merikle (1988), and
Swets et al. (1961).
2. In addition to manipulating the prime-mask SOA, Cheesman and Merikle (1984) varied the prime-
target color SOA, either 50, 550, or 1,050 msec. Because this latter variable did not significantly
influence the size of the observed priming effects, the results for each prime-target color SOA have
been averaged to yield the above priming data.
3. This study is also described in Greenwald et al. (1990), together with two successful replications.

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Bordon, G., and K.S. Harris 1984 Speech Science Primer: Physiology, Acoustics, and Perception of
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Conway, M., and M. Ross 1984 Getting what you want by revising what you had. Journal of
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Dyer, F.N., and L.J. Severance 1973 Stroop interference with successive presentations of separate
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Goldiamond, I. 1958 Indicators of perception: subliminal perception, subception, unconscious
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Greenwald, A.G., M.R. Klinger, and T.J. Lui 1989 Unconscious processing of dichotically masked
words. Memory and Cognition 17:35-47.

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Greenwald, A.G., E.R. Spangenberg, A.R. Pratkanis, and J. Eskenazi 1990 Double-Blind Tests of
Subliminal Self-Help Tapes. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association
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University of Washington, Seattle.
Groeger, J.A. 1984 Evidence of unconscious semantic processing from a forced error situation. British
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Holender, D. 1986 Semantic activation without conscious identification in dichotic listening,
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Jacoby, L.L., and K. Whitehouse 1989 An illusion of memory: false recognition influenced by
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Kihlstrom, J.F. 1987 The cognitive unconscious. Science 237:1445-1452.
Mandler, G., Y. Nakamura, and B.J.S. Van Zandt 1987 Nonspecific effects of exposure to stimuli that
cannot be recognized. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and
Cognition 13:646-648.
Marcel, A.J. 1983 Conscious and unconscious perception: experiments on visual masking and word
recognition. Cognitive Psychology 15:197-237.
McGarvey, R. 1989 Recording success. USAir Magazine February:94-102.
Merikle, P.M. 1988 Subliminal auditory messages: an evaluation. Psychology and Marketing
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Merikle, P.M., and J. Cheesman 1987 Current status of research on subliminal perception. Pp.
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Reingold, E.M., and P.M. Merikle 1988 Using direct and indirect measures to study perception
without awareness. Perception and Psychophysics 44:563-575.
Sackeim, H.A., I.K. Packer, and R.C. Gur 1977 Hemisphericity, cognitive set, and susceptibility to
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Tapes. Potentials, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Weir, W. 1984 Another look at subliminal “facts.” Advertising Age October:46.

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MEDITATION 120

7
Meditation

Meditation is generally defined as a class of techniques designed to

influence an individual's consciousness through the regulation of attention.
However, there is less agreement on its conceptualization than is commonly
thought. Necessary procedural elements seem to be: (1) to lie quietly or to sit in a
particular position, (2) to attend to one's breathing but not necessarily to try to
slow it, (3) to adopt a passive attitude, (4) to be at ease, and, sometimes, (5) to
repeat aloud or to oneself a word or phrase, referred to as a mantra. What is less
clear is whether one's mind should be directed to an idea of a Supreme Being or
to a less theistic notion of the universality of existence, or whether the mind
should be “empty,” except perhaps for the repetition of the mantra. An additional
controversy is whether the practice of meditation has to be but one part of a
particular life-style, as was and is the case on the Indian subcontinent, where
yogic practices and philosophies originated.
One of the problems in evaluating the importance of an overall life-style is
that those who are well practiced in meditation (of whatever kind, except perhaps
for Westernized versions; see below) are generally the ones who serve as subjects
in experiments. Perhaps that is as it should be, given that considerable dedicated
practice is asserted to be necessary for doing it “right”; however, that
characteristic makes it difficult to separate specific techniques from a firmly held
belief system. In this respect, research on meditation is similar to research on such
topics as psychoanalysis and related approaches to clinical treatment.
There are three streams in the history of meditation. First, meditation is
central to various forms of eastern mysticism, especially Buddhism,

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MEDITATION 121

the central principle of which is that God is knowable through proper meditation.
An insight unknowable except to the faithful can also lead to greater physical
strength, long life, and a general contentment (“Nirvana”). The proper practice of
meditation, however, is said to require a withdrawal from the everyday world,
although the dramatic experience of Buddhist Vietnamese monks immolating
themselves with fire as a political protest in the early 1970s indicates that such
priestly withdrawal is not incompatible with deep concern for everyday realities.
Second, in the late 1950s a wise man from India known as the Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi introduced transcendental meditation to the West, especially the
United States. The Maharishi stated that transcendental meditation was a method
based on scientific principles that could be studied systematically, and that its
conscientious practice could lead to a deep and complete understanding of nature
and to general benefits for humankind (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1966). Unlike
Buddhist meditation, transcendental meditation did not require radical life-style
changes or extended practice, and it placed greater emphasis on “destressing”
people than it did on spiritual enlightenment or contact with a Supreme Being.
The 1960s was conducive to the spread of transcendental meditation among both
lay people and scientists; the work of the latter group is reviewed below.
A third stream in humankind's long-standing interest in meditation can be
found in some Western mystical traditions, both Christian and Jewish. Among
Hasidic Jews, for example, there is a tradition of dancing and chanting for long
periods of time in order to achieve an altered state in which the teachings of God
can be more readily received.
Thus, people in many parts of the world have for centuries been drawn to
practices that, without drugs or other direct physical manipulations, are believed
to lead to altered states of consciousness. These practices are also believed by
some to put one in contact with higher truths or with God, and sometimes to bring
more earthly benefits, such as better physical and emotional well-being.

SCIENTIFIC EVALUATIONS OF MEDITATION

Divine or spiritual revelation represents one time-honored way to know
one's world and one's place in it. It is different from scientific ways of knowing,
however, and it is the latter epistemology that guides our evaluation of
meditation. Over the past 30 years considerable scientific attention has been
directed to various meditative practices.
From a rational point of view, the practice of meditation may lead to
psychological and physical benefits by distracting a person from stressors,
whether they are environmental or self-generated. (There is a

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MEDITATION 122

school of thought that an external event is a stressor only if it is appraised or

evaluated as such; see Lazarus, 1966.) If a person seeks out a quiet place, closes
his or her eyes, and repeats a mantra, there is every reason to expect that the
person's cognitive apparatus will become less occupied with processing negative
information. Generations of insomniacs have been instructed to lie quietly and
count sheep. It is doubtful that this homespun remedy for sleeplessness would
persist over the years if it did not help some people some of the time.
The problem, from a scientific perspective, concerns proper experimental
controls. Controls for distraction or for just sitting or lying quietly and
undisturbed are seldom found in the many studies that demonstrate positive
benefits, such as reduction in respiration and heart rate, and in experiences of
stress, such as anxiety or anger (Cheaper and Giber, 1978; Delmonte, 1985).
Indeed, when resting-only controls are present, there is virtually no evidence that
reductions in somatic arousal (heart rate, respiration rate, skin conductance
fluctuations, blood pressure) are any less than those found in experienced
meditators who are meditating (Holmes, 1984). There are some reports of
benefits in blood pressure reduction for borderline hypertensives (e.g., Benson,
1975; Patel, 1973), but the combined use of other techniques, such as relaxation,
in most studies precludes a clear attribution of any positive effects to meditation
by itself (Delmonte, 1984, as cited in Brener and Connally, 1986). Patel (1976)
for example, says that in addition to meditation, patients must make life-style
changes to reduce conflict, a sensible enough conclusion and one that is
consistent with the growing recognition that successful interventions must usually
be multifaceted (Davison and Neale, 1990).
Overall, our assessment of the scientific research on mediation leads to the
conclusion that it seems to be no more effective in lowering metabolism than are
established relaxation techniques; it is unwarranted to attribute any special effects
to meditation alone. The rest of this section discusses several kinds of studies that
underlie our conclusions.

The Pit Burial Studies

The most striking presumed benefits of meditation are found in reports from
“pit burial” studies. There is a tradition in India that certain highly regarded yogis
can perform superhuman feats. One such feat is to be buried alive for 1 or 2 days.
Special importance is attributed to the mystique of the meditation and the yogis'
general life-style. In a pit burial, the person lies supine in a board-covered pit
underground or in an airtight box above the ground. The longest recorded period
survived by a human being was reported by Vakil (1950). After 62 hours, the man
emerged stuporous but alive. So startling were these reports that in

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MEDITATION 123

1960 the government of India established a committee to study yogic practices as

part of an investigation of indigenous medicine. Most controlled research in the
West has been conducted in conjunction with this Indian effort.
Mammals, of course, produce carbon dioxide when they exhale, and it is
normal for the respiration rate to increase as carbon dioxide concentrations
increase. Thus, breathing in an airtight box gradually uses up oxygen at the same
time it produces carbon dioxide; the trick is to breathe as slowly as possible, thus
using up the least amount of oxygen, but this requires that one suppress the
normal mammalian reflex to breathe more rapidly as carbon dioxide increases. In
this connection, we note that evidence supports the assertion that meditation
reduces metabolic rate, probably through a reduction in respiration rate.
In one study, an experienced yogi instructor had a lighted candle with him in
an airtight box. The candle went out after 3 hours, but the yogi remained there for
an additional 5 hours. On another occasion he spent 10 hours alone in the box. It
was found that his oxygen intake decreased by 40 to 50 percent. At the end of his
ordeal, the air he was breathing contained 15.8 percent oxygen and 4.4 percent
carbon dioxide; the proportions for air at sea level are 20 percent and less than 2
percent, respectively. Thus, the actual air available for consumption was not very
different from regular air. Another study showed that as long as carbon dioxide
concentrations did not exceed 7 percent and as long as oxygen concentration was
at least 12 percent, a person could remain alive in a box.
In our view the renowned yogic feat is probably due not to special properties
of meditation, but rather to confidence in one's ability to slow down one's
respiration rate and to the faith that one can survive the ordeal if only one does
not panic (and thereby use up more oxygen than normal). For a nonmystical
Westerner, it would seem that what is required is knowledge of the scientific
facts as summarized above and a confidence in one's skills to lie still and reduce
one's respiration rate. Faith in one's “captor” would also seem important, as would
the availability of a “panic button” to gain early release if one felt the need to ask
for it. It is well known and reported in the committee's earlier report (Druckman
and Swets, 1988) that perceived control and predictability are inherently
anxiety-reducing. Religious faith and patriotism may well be powerful forces that
enable people to cope under highly stressful circumstances; these possibilities
remain to be investigated.

The Generalization Problem

A central problem for any intervention is whether benefits such as reduced
anxiety, achieved during a therapeutic or training session, generalize to everyday
situations. Consideration of the value of any stress

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management method must include the conditions of its application. For example,
if a person's task is to lie still in a confined space and “just” control his anxieties
so that he does not panic after hours or days, then meditation, relaxation, or
prayer can be useful. We have seen from the pit burial studies that enough oxygen
is available even in an airtight space for a person to survive for hours—provided
the person maintains a low respiration rate—and this goal is achieved more
readily if the person does not panic. But if the situation calls for performing a
complex sensorimotor task, such as firing a rifle or reading a radar screen,
engaging in meditation would seem impossible if not counterproductive, and
there are no data suggesting otherwise.
The most supportive data come from relaxation/meditation/biofeedback
studies that show lasting reductions in blood pressure following proper training
(DiTomasso, 1987). However, the issue here is what accounts for this
generalization of effects: Does the person take time out during the day to relax or
meditate, or is there some more enduring, systemic reduction in arousal level that
does not require conscious attention and practice? Other explanations of lasting
reductions would consider changes brought about by the person's lowered
reactivity or anger and the positive social-environmental effects that such internal
changes might cause. In addition, any consideration of meditation would have to
include the religious component, at least insofar as it would seem to provide a
strong motivation to practice and apply the techniques.
We conclude that data do not exist to answer the generalization question.
The laboratory findings that do exist fail to demonstrate that meditation itself
enhances a person's ability to reduce arousal from a stressor (Holmes, 1984).
Similar criticisms can be made of the effects of relaxation alone, that is, training
and encouraging people to relax their muscles and calm their minds. Although
there is overlap with some meditation techniques, relaxation training is readily
distinguishable insofar as it does not try to teach a person to gain philosophical-
religious insights or to get close to a supreme being. But as with meditation, the
interesting and still unanswered question is how generalization is achieved—
perhaps a person must be taught to relax differentially in actual stressful
situations (see Goldfried and Davison, 1976:98). Or, as with meditation, an
answer might be found in the establishment of a more supportive environment
and life-style. For example, learning to relax and to enjoy good feelings may
prompt a person to make positive changes in his or her work and personal
situation, thereby reducing the general stressfulness of the social environment.
Another possibility for most meditation practices relates to the philosophical
context. It may be that meditation and relaxation, including

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MEDITATION 125

relaxation achieved with certain forms of biofeedback, effect cognitive change.

Recent evidence in support of this is available in a report by Davison et al. (in
press), who found that intensive relaxation training reduced blood pressure in
hypertensives more so than in a group given nonpharmacological medical
information and also reduced anger and hostility in subjects' thoughts. Moreover,
reductions in hostility and anger were positively correlated with reductions in
cardiovascular activity, which is consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive
changes brought about, in part, by relaxation training contribute to reductions in
hypertension.

Review of the Literature

In 1986 the Army Research Institute commissioned a review of the literature
on meditation by Brener and Connally of the University of Hull in England. In
this section we summarize the key conclusions reached by the authors, note what
research is needed, and discuss possible implications for performance. In the next
section we present and comment on a specially commissioned critique of the
review.

Key Conclusions
The Brener-Connally review concentrates primarily on the role of meditation
in reducing stress and hypertension. They find that research to date supports
claims that meditation produces relaxation or stress reduction. The effects of
meditation are unlikely to be due to “exotic” factors: subjective effects (e.g.,
relaxed feelings) may be the result of alterations in blood chemistry brought
about naturally through normal bodily processes. They find it is difficult to
separate the “unique” effects of meditative procedures from more general
“atmosphere” effects including the patient's (meditator's) beliefs and the
therapist's (instructor's) confidence. Overall, there are few cases in which
meditation is shown to be more effective than other treatments for stress and
anxiety.
Brener and Connally conclude that reported feats of endurance such as pit
burials are likely to be due to the effect of meditation or deep relaxation on
metabolism. A lowered metabolism may allow for survival under conditions of
restricted oxygen availability. Effects on metabolism can be produced by
controlling respiration in the manner practiced by yogis.
Many promoters of meditation are more concerned with demonstrations of
the experience than with experimental evaluations of the procedure. Little
progress has been made in attempts to understand the underlying mechanisms for
observed effects of meditation. Experimental

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work to date is characterized by weak designs: a lack of control for subject

selection, experimenter biases, expectancies, and atmosphere effects. Work on
meditation has led to speculations regarding presumed links between
psychological processes (e.g., states of nonanalytical thought) and physiological
processes (e.g., neural activity, blood pressure).

Needed Research
Like the research literature on various forms of psychotherapy, the study of
meditation would benefit from better experimental designs with proper controls
and baselines for judging change. A promising area of investigation is an
examination of the pathways through which psychological manifestations of
meditation are produced. The better resolutions provided by new brain-scanning
technologies may elucidate what happens in the brain during meditation.
Further work is needed on the psychological or institutional context for the
practice of meditation. Particular attention should be paid to the Army context in
relation to adoption of nontraditional training techniques. More attention should
also be paid to the medically-relevant claims for the treatment of anxiety, pain,
and disease as well as the medical implications of sustained attention. Finally,
linkage between the documented effects of meditation and performance remains
an uncharted topic: are there “unique” effects of meditation on performance that
differ from those shown to result from other (nonmeditative) procedures that
reduce stress?

Implications for Performance

The Brener-Connally review makes clear how little we know about
relationships between physiological measures (e.g., electroencephalogram, heart
rate) and psychological changes such as attitudes reported for meditation and
performance in any situation. Experiments are needed that explore hypothesized
relationships between changes in the physiological or psychological variables and
changes in the way people perform on well-defined tasks. A start along these
lines is the work done by Beatty and his colleagues in the 1970s (e.g., Beatty et
al., 1974; Beatty and O'Hanlon, 1979). They focused on vigilance performance as
manifested in such tasks as radar monitoring. They did not, however, examine
links between meditation effects and motor or cognitive performance.
The review discusses the many complex issues that surround evaluations of
meditative practices. It also points to the conclusion that a good deal of research
is needed to document the possible links to performance. On the basis of this
conclusion, it would seem appropriate to

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pursue a program of basic research designed to relate meditative practices to

performances on relevant tasks. If the effects of meditation reviewed in the
Brener and Connally paper are replicable, there is reason to believe that those
effects would intervene between the procedures and observed performances.
There may, however, be some gaps in their coverage of meditation as noted in the
next section.

CRITIQUE OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

In an effort to give as much consideration as possible to the military
application of meditation, the committee commissioned David Shannahoff-
Khalsa, a practitioner of yogic techniques, to write a critique of the Brener and
Connally review paper.
The critique by Shannahoff-Khalsa (1990) contains four major points. First,
the Brener-Connally paper covers only 300 of 1,200 published studies on
meditation and relies on texts written by people who are not “masters.” There is
also too much focus in the review on the Buddhist meditation method. Second,
Brener and Connally also lack familiarity with certain yogic practices, most
especially Kundalini Yoga, as learned by Shannahoff-Khalsa from the Yogi
Bhajan. Third, in an extended discussion and description of Kundalini Yoga
techniques, Shannahoff-Khalsa notes that they are reported to be very effective
for controlling stress, pain, and fatigue; it is claimed these techniques cure
various mental disorders and generally enhance human performance through the
development of a powerful mind and body. Included is a technique “for
developing a penetrating force that cannot be matched by any contemporary
techniques available in the military today” (1990:28). Fourth, Shannahoff-Khalsa
makes proposals for research along with the caution that knowledge of the
techniques not be disseminated widely because of their great power.

Overall Assessment
Great emphasis is placed by Shannahoff-Khalsa on a book by Murphy and
Donovan (1988) that reviews more than 1,200 meditation studies, many more
than those covered by Brener and Connally. Furthermore, the authors are self-
labelled meditation devotees, while Brener and Connally avowedly are not. He
goes on to say that another meditation expert, Deane Shapiro, asserts that the
Murphy-Donovan book “gives a fair analysis of this literature.”
Although Shannahoff-Khalsa says that Brener and Connally are fair in their
appraisal, he asserts that they have overgeneralized from a limited source base,
although he admits that no one can assimilate all the

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literature on meditation. One glaring weakness is in their treatment of the yogic

perspective. According to Shannahoff-Khalsa, their coverage is adequate for
Buddhist-Vipassana, transcendental, and Zen meditation, but not for Kundalini
Yoga. Nevertheless, he tends to agree with Brener and Connally's overall
judgment that there is no consensus on how to define meditation, how to do it,
whether its results are superior to other psychological techniques such as
relaxation, and whether the published studies contain too many methodological
flaws to permit clear conclusions.
Shannahoff-Khalsa is critical, however, of Brener and Connally's reliance on
transcendental meditation and related work by Benson (1975) on “the relaxation
response.” Both transcendental meditation and Benson's procedure, he asserts,
make a person “overly sensitive” to the extent that they become passive and
withdrawn. Yogi Master Bhajan concluded this from transcendental meditation
practitioners who came to study with him, and Shannahoff-Khalsa agrees on the
basis of his own 2-year experimentation with transcendental meditation, during
which time he found himself becoming temperamental and touchy. He concludes
that even if performed only 20 minutes a day, as the Maharishi and Benson
suggest, such practice harms the person in that it induces a retreat into a silent
realm, produces a passive attitude toward the external world, and reduces active
coping. In general, he is critical of silent meditation and any form that does not
require sitting with an erect spine and that is not more complex and structured
than transcendental meditation. The problematic evidentiary bases of these
conclusions are clear.

Kundalini Yoga
According to Shannahoff-Khalsa, the biggest omission of Brener and
Connally has to do with yogic techniques from India and the Chi-gong (life-
force) techniques from China. While there is no clear division between meditation
and yoga, the former requires less motor activity. He says that the parent of all
yogic practices is Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Much of
Shannahoff-Khalsa's paper contains excerpts from his other writings that detail
Kundalini techniques and physiological rationale and provide recommendations
for their use by the military. In his paper on stress technology medicine, he
argues that the nasal cycle is a simple parameter for assessing autonomic-central
nervous system interrelationships as well as a means of determining left- and
right-brain dominance. Stress, he asserts, results from how long and how
frequently a swing in homeostatic imbalance is maintained. Moreover, nasal
obstruction in the left or right nostril can be related to psychopathology and
stress.
On the basis of these neurophysiological speculations, Shannahoff-

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Khalsa proposes numerous exercises, many of which entail unilateral forced

nostril breathing. He cites some of his own studies that purport to show that
unilateral forced breathing could stimulate the contralateral hemisphere,
producing relatively greater amplitudes in the electroencephalogram. He says
that this effect is consistent with relationships of the nasal cycle and cerebral
rhythm from yogic medicine. He also says recent data of his group purport to
show that such breathing has predictable positive effects on cognitive
performance by rectifying imbalance in the autonomic nervous system.
The committee finds these claims unwarranted. Specifically, the idea that too
much left-brain activity and right sympathetic dominance may be what we think
of as stress cannot be supported by any empirical data. Furthermore, this assertion
is not consistent with contemporary scientific theories about the
neuroendocrinology of stress (e.g., Weiner et al., 1989). One empirical study has
attempted to address the possibility that one hemisphere may participate to a
greater extent than the other in triggering the cascade of cognitive, affective, and
biochemical events that we call stress. Using salivary cortisol secretion as a
biologic marker of stress response, Wittling and Pfluger (1990) found that the
right hemisphere (and not the left, as predicted by Shannahoff-Khalsa, 1991) is
differentially active in producing the stress response.
Would the techniques recommended by Shannahoff-Khalsa, if indeed they
had the proposed effect, influence the perception of stress and its biologic
concomitants? There exists in the neuropsychology literature a small and
inconclusive group of studies that have examined the relationship between
unilateral forced nostril breathing and how it may influence behavior and indices
of brain function (e.g., electroencephalogram). These empirical studies (Werntz
et al., 1983; Werntz, 1987; Klein et al., 1986; Block et al., 1989) contain some
support for the notion that unilateral nostril breathing may have an effect on
cognitive performance and electroencephalogram activity. Overall, however, this
literature raises many more questions than it answers.1 Moreover, the committee
queries whether the effects, if any, have application to complex behavioral tasks
that are encountered in the real world.
Shannahoff-Khalsa also describes in some detail a number of yogic
exercises taught to him by Yogi Bhajan. Though not yet proven valid by science,
these exercises are effective for many purposes, he says, including stress
management and control of some psychopathologies such as obsessive-
compulsive disorder (one of the most difficult nonpsychotic disorders to treat).
He believes that “our future holds the possibility for developing a near stress-
resistant and disease-resistant individual” (1990:47) if such techniques are
properly taught and faithfully practiced.
In another paper on advanced neuropsychological technology programs,

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MEDITATION 130

Shannahoff-Khalsa (1987) asserts that Kundalini Yoga can make soldiers

markedly resistant to the highest stress; he strengthens this assertion with
references to Tibetan monks carrying out extreme activities, such as being
isolated for 3 years. He proposes training programs and research and sees
Kundalini Yoga as the best way to prepare military personnel for the extreme
mental and physical challenges of modern and future warfare.
Shannahoff-Khalsa concludes by asserting that, of all the forms of
meditation, Kundalini Yoga has the most promising implications for the military,
that its skilled application can help develop “the soldier-saint” in whom is deeply
instilled the desire to excel in the art of warfare. So convinced is he of the power
of these techniques that he urges great caution in their dissemination. This caveat
assumes that Kundalini Yoga is as powerful as he asserts. The committee does
not find evidence to support that conclusion.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE ON EPISTEMOLOGY

It must be noted that it is very difficult for nonmeditation experts and
thoroughly Western scientists like the members of the committee to evaluate
many of the claims like those of Shannahoff-Khalsa. He is deeply immersed in
Kundalini Yoga and conducts both his personal and professional life in keeping
with the philosophical and procedural requirements of that practice. He asserts, as
do some psychoanalysts, that one cannot know a complex and powerful system
unless one experiences it in a deep and thoroughgoing way. No one on our
committee has done this with Kundalini Yoga or, for that matter, with the other
meditation practices we have reviewed. This epistemological issue has important
policy implications. Contemporary science is but one way of knowing. It is,
however, the way of knowing that characterizes the work of this committee. At
the same time, it seems appropriate to be mindful of the constraints that science,
as well as culture, background, and personal life experience, places on how the
committee views the field of meditation.

CONCLUSIONS
The scientific literature on meditation indicates that controls for distraction
or for just sitting or lying quietly and undisturbed are seldom to be found in the
many studies that demonstrate positive benefits from meditation. When
appropriate controls are present, no evidence supports the notion either that
meditation reduces arousal any more than does simply resting quietly or that
meditation permits a person to better cope with a stressor. When meditation has
been found to be effective for such

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MEDITATION 131

things as reducing hypertension, the combined use of other techniques, such as

relaxation training, precludes a clear attribution of any positive effects to
meditation itself. Life-style changes to reduce conflict are also apparently
instrumental, a sensible enough conclusion and one that is consistent with the
growing recognition that successful interventions must usually be multifaceted.
The highly publicized feats of some yogis who can remain buried for many
hours without suffocating are probably due not to any special properties of
meditation, but rather to confidence in their ability to slow down their respiration
rate as well as faith that they can survive the ordeal if only they do not panic and
use up more oxygen than normal. Consistent with findings from the committee's
earlier report, perceived control and predictability are inherently anxiety-
reducing. A related possibility concerns the philosophical context for most
meditation practices. It may be that meditation and relaxation (and perhaps also
relaxation achieved with certain forms of biofeedback) effect cognitive change,
not the least of which may be an enhanced sense of self-efficacy, a belief that one
can control one's stress reactions to some extent.
A particular challenge to those who advocate meditation is whether in-
session benefits generalize to everyday situations or to conditions of special
challenge. Does a person take time out during the day to meditate, or is there
some more enduring, systemic reduction in arousal level which does not require
conscious attention to practice? Perhaps interpersonal, social context changes are
brought about by the person's lowered reactivity to challenge, and these positive
social-environmental shifts present the individual with a less stressful
environment. We do not believe that data exist to answer this question.
There is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that the proper
application of Kundalini Yoga can help develop “the soldier-saint” in whom is
instilled the superhuman desire and ability to excel in the art of warfare.

NOTE

1. Block et al. (1989) found that unilateral forced nostril breathing influences spatial and verbal
performance, but with opposite results for males and females. Werntz and his colleagues (Werntz et
al., 1983; Werntz, 1987) employed the unusual assumption that greater integrated
electroencephalogram amplitude over a particular hemisphere indicates that it is dominant at the time.
(The traditional interpretation is that fast, low voltage activity reflects decreased cortical activation.)
Furthermore, in the Werntz et al. study, there were five subjects, only one of which showed shifts in
EEG symmetry. Klein et al. (1986) found that free breathing subjects showed a small correlation
between nostril dominance and cognitive performance and that unilateral nostril breathing does not
influence cognitive performance. Based on this evidence it would seem premature to suggest that this
approach be used for stress reduction.

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REFERENCES
Beatty, J., and J.F. O'Hanlon 1979 Operant control of posterior theta rhythm and vigilance
performance: repeated treatments and transfer of training. In N. Birbaumer and H.D.
Kimmel, eds., Biofeedback and Self-Regulation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Beatty, J., A. Greensberg, W.P. Diebler, and J.F. O'Hanlon 1974 Operant control of occipital theta
rhythm affects performance in a radar monitoring task. Science 183:871-874.
Benson, H. 1975 The Relaxation Response. New York: Morrow.
Block, R., D. Arnott, B. Quigley, and W. Lynch 1989 Unilateral nostril breathing influences
lateralized cognitive performance. Brain and Cognition 9:181-190.
Brener, J., and S.R. Connally 1986 Meditation: Rationales, Experimental Effects, and
Methodological Issues. Paper prepared for the U.S. Army Research Institute for the
Behavioral and Social Sciences, European Division. Department of Psychology, University
of Hull, London, England.
Cheaper, D.M., and D. Giber 1978 Meditation and psychotherapeutic effects. Archives of General
Psychiatry 35:294-302.
Davison, G.C., and J.M. Neale 1990 Abnormal Psychology, 5th ed. New York: Wiley.
Davison, G.C., M.E. Williams, E. Nezami, T. Bice, and V. DeQuattro In press Relaxation, reduction
in angry articulated thoughts and improvements in borderline hypertension and heart rate.
Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Delmonte, M.M. 1985 Meditation and anxiety reduction. Clinical Psychology Review , 5:1-12.
DiTomasso, R.A. 1987 Essential hypertension: a methodological review. In L. Michelson and L.M.
Ascher, eds., Anxiety and Stress Disorders. New York: Guilford.
Druckman, D., and J. Swets 1988 Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and
Techniques. Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance,
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Goldfried, M.R., and G.C. Davison 1976 Clinical Behavior Therapy. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston.
Holmes, D.S. 1984 Meditation and somatic arousal reduction: a review of the experimental evidence.
American Psychologist 39:1-10.
Klein, R., D. Pieton, S. Prossner, and D. Shannahoff-Khalsa 1986 Hemispheric performance
efficiency varies with nasal airflow. Biological Psychology 23:127-137.
Lazarus, R.S. 1966 Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 1966 The Science of Being and Art of Living. London: International SRM
Publications.
Murphy, M., and S. Donovan 1988 The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A Review
of Contemporary

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Meditation Research with a Comprehensive Bibliography 1931-1988. San Rafael, Calif.:

Esalen Institute for Exceptional Functioning.
Patel, C. 1973 Yoga and biofeedback in the management of hypertension. Lancet 2:1053-1055.
1976 TM and hypertension. Lancet 1:539.
Shannahoff-Khalsa, D.S. 1987 Advanced Neuropsychological Technology Programs for Defense.
Unpublished paper, Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science, Del Mar, Calif.
1990 A Commentary on the Jasper Brener and Samuel R. Connally Report. Paper prepared for the
Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance, National Research
Council. Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science, Del Mar, Calif.
1991 Stress technology medicine: a new paradigm for stress and considerations for self-regulation. In
M. Brown, C. Rivier, and G. Koob, eds., Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Stress.
New York: Marcell Dekker Press.
Vakil, R.J. 1950 Remarkable feat of endurance by a yogi priest. Lancet 2:871.
Weiner, H., I. Florin, R. Murison, and D. Helhamer 1989 Frontiers of Stress Research. Toronto:
Huber.
Werntz, D.A. 1987 Selective hemispheric stimulation by unilateral forced nostril breathing. Human
Neurobiology 6:165-171.
Werntz, D.A., R.G. Bickford, F.E. Bloom, and D.S. Shannahoff-Khalsa 1983 Alternating cerebral
hemispheric activity and lateralization of autonomic nervous function. Human
Neurobiology 2:39-43.
Wittling, W., and M. Pfluger 1990 Neuroendocrine hemisphere asymmetries: salivary cortisol
secretions during lateralized viewing of emotion-related and neutral films. Brain and
Cognition 14:243-265.

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MANAGING PAIN 134

8
Managing Pain

There is encouraging evidence that people can be taught

nonpharmacological ways to cope with physical pain, particularly that which
results from extreme psychological stress. This chapter examines the literature on
pain management for clues about how to help people survive and function when
environmental challenge is so severe that stress involves physical pain. (For this
chapter the committee benefited from a commissioned paper by Laura Darke
[1990].)
It is widely accepted that pain is worse when anxiety is high, and thus, that
it can be controlled to an appreciable degree when anxiety can be diminished
(Sternbach, 1966). Factors involved in the control of anxiety and stress (see
Druckman and Swets, 1988) are similar to those important in the control of pain.
It should be mentioned at the outset, however, that pain, like anxiety, has adaptive
properties. People born congenitally incapable of experiencing pain often suffer
serious injuries and even early death because they lack the capacity to take
appropriate action cued by the experience of pain from a truly harmful stimulus.
Our focus on the management or reduction of pain should not dismiss its
beneficial nature under certain circumstances.

ASPECTS OF PAIN
To place pain management in context, it is useful to distinguish among four
dimensions of pain (Loeser, 1980): nociception, pain, suffering, and pain
behavior. It will quickly become evident that pain does not arise from a direct
linkage between nerve stimulation and the cortex.

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Nociception is defined as “mechanical, thermal or chemical energy

impinging upon specialized nerve endings that in turn activate A-Delta and C
fibers, thus initiating a signal to the central nervous system that aversive events
are occurring” (Loeser, 1980:313). Thus, nociception is the basic physiological
event that is presumed to create the conditions for the experience of pain. In
practice it is inferred from a person's self-report. The fact that these afferent
fibers travel in a complex fashion to many parts of the central nervous system
provides an anatomical, although incompletely understood, basis for the
modulating effects that higher mental processes have on the perception of pain
(Gatchel et al., 1989).
Pain is defined as the perception of nociceptive stimulation. As with other
kinds of perception, there may not always be a precise match between what is
perceived and what actually exists. For example, in phantom limb pain, a patient
perceives pain in an extremity that has been surgically or traumatically removed.
Conversely, nociception can occur without the perception of pain, as when a
soldier in combat is unaware for a period of time of a wound that is doubtless
creating nociceptive input.
The theoretical basis of this view of pain is derived from Melzack and Wall's
(1965) “gate-control” theory of pain, which proposes that there is a
neurophysiological mechanism in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord that can
increase or decrease the transmission of nerve impulses from the peripheral
afferent nociceptive fibers. This gate is influenced by efferent nerve impulses
from the brain, forming a physiological basis for the effects (reviewed below)
that thought and emotion can have on the experience of pain (Gatchel et al.,
1989). Conditions that “open the gate” and enhance pain perception are anxiety,
depression, and focus on the pain; those that close the gate include relaxation,
optimism, and distraction.
Suffering can be defined as the evaluative or affective response to the
perception of pain, but it can be present also without pain, as when a loved one
dies or withdraws. Indeed, loss or the threat of loss are believed central to the
experience of suffering (Bakan, 1968). According to existential writings (e.g.,
Gendlin, 1962), suffering can be lessened if a person sees some meaning to the
ordeal he or she is undergoing (see below). Pain behavior is defined as the
observable behaviors associated with either pain or suffering. Thus, pain
behavior may or may not always arise from nociception. Examples are moaning,
teeth-clenching, guarded gait, irritability, and avoidance of activity (Turk et al.,
1985).
The extensive work of Fordyce (1988; described in detail below) is based on
the distinction between nociception/pain and suffering/pain behavior. In the
former there is a physical input that cues the body to an

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MANAGING PAIN 136

aversive event that must be attended to in order to prevent or minimize bodily

injury. In the latter, the person's reports of suffering from pain may not be
entirely, or even importantly, related to organic nociception but rather may be
associated with complex psychological factors having little to do with tissue
injury.

Acute Versus Chronic Pain

Acute pain is linked to nociception. Chronic pain can evolve from acute pain
and is said to be present when healing time is past, that is, when there is no
nociception, generally regarded as a period of 6 months from an injury or event.
It is more often associated with suffering and disability. Depression and anxiety
magnify chronic pain more than they do acute pain (Kelly, 1986), and traditional
medical treatments seldom help (Gatchel et al., 1989). The profiles of a well-
known personality assessment instrument, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI), discriminate between acute and chronic pain patients, the
latter showing elevations in the “neurotic triad,” hypochondriasis, depression, and
hysteria. This pattern is believed to be due to the constant wearing away of the
person's energy from the ongoing pain, his or her preoccupation with it, and
despair from not improving (Sternbach, 1974; Barnett, 1986).

Psychological Factors in Pain

Pain used to be considered strictly a function of physical injury, but in
recent years there has been increasing appreciation of psychological factors.
These factors (see Peck, 1986) lay the groundwork for consideration of pain
management.
Fear, Anxiety, and Depression In general, there is a linear relationship
between anxiety and the experience or perception of pain (Cohen and Lazarus,
1973; Wilson, 1981), especially for acute pain. The nature of the anxiety usually
relates to fear of death or of disability and fear of the unknown. Hospitalization
generally brings with it radically new situations to be adjusted to, loss of one's
normal freedom and control, separation from family and other social supports,
and procedures that occasion nociception. It should also be mentioned that pain
behaviors can serve as excuses to escape from or avoid fearsome situations,
referred to by psychoanalysts as secondary gain; for many people, especially
men, complaints of pain are more acceptable than reports of fear. Depression is
also associated with the experience of pain (Halpern, 1978); some symptoms of
depression, like sleep disturbance and lethargy, can

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themselves exacerbate pain over the long term or can contribute to chronic pain.
Of course pain from a traumatic event like a serious injury often leads to
depression that both causes and is itself caused by loss of occupational function,
decreases in cognitive and sexual functioning, and changes in physical
appearance.
Perceived Control Over Noxious Stimuli As with fear and anxiety, pain
perception seems to increase if a person does not believe he or she has some
degree of control over the nociceptive stimulation (Averill, 1973; Geer et al.,
1970; Glass et al., 1973). In addition, extended periods of helplessness can also
contribute to depression.
Attention/Distraction Distraction from a painful stimulus can decrease the
perception of pain, and attention to it can increase pain (Blitz and Dinnerstein,
1971; Turk, 1978; Turk et al., 1983).
Cognitive Appraisal Along the lines of Lazarus's (1966) classic work on
appraisal and fear, the way a person construes his nociceptive pain can affect
subsequent pain experience and behavior. A literary example is in Stephen
Crane's Red Badge of Courage, in which a soldier during a Civil War battle
wishes to be wounded so that his courage will not be questioned. Nonfictional
wartime examples were reported by Beecher (1956), who found during World
War II that soldiers about to be sent home because of their wounds reported far
less pain than civilians with comparable wounds created by surgery. In general,
the meaning of a nociceptive stimulus can affect how one reacts to it, whether one
can continue to function and how much discomfort will be experienced;
certainly, commitment and strong belief in a cause is a time-honored factor in
coping with all sorts of ordeals, whether painful or not.
Coping Style A person's cognitive coping style, in terms of avoiding or
seeking information, has been shown to interact with the benefits of information
provided prior to a painful or threatening event. Byrne (1964) originally classified
styles of coping along a “repression-sensitization” continuum: repressors are said
to prefer to cope by denial and avoidance; sensitizers prefer confrontation with
the stressor. Some studies have found that sensitizers do better when information
is provided than when it is not, while repressors show the opposite pattern. For
example, Andrew (1970) found that repressors used more medication
postoperatively. Shipley et al. (1978, 1979) similarly found repressors to have
higher heart rates during a medical procedure and to require more tranquilizers
than sensitizers when they had been given information about the procedure.
Learning Factors Responses to nociceptive stimuli can be greatly

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influenced by observation of how others respond to them (Craig and Weiss,

1975). Such social modeling actually affects the experience of painful stimuli.
Pain behavior can be influenced by contingencies, like the presence of a
solicitous spouse (Fordyce, 1976, 1978); this forms the basis of his work with
chronic pain (described below).

TREATING ACUTE PAIN

Acute pain refers to relatively short-term suffering and disability resulting
from trauma. The perception of acute pain is influenced by a number of
psychological factors, and recovery is likely to be aided by several
nonpharmacological approaches that enable people to manage the pain. A
number of these approaches are described in the following paragraphs.
Placebo and Expectation Placebo refers to the improvement based on
expectation of gain rather than on the operation of a specifically effective
therapeutic agent. (This distinction, of course, would not hold if one's theory of
change postulated expectation of gain as itself an active therapeutic agent.) There
is some intriguing evidence that placebo-based improvement in pain perception
has a biochemical basis: expectation of benefit may release beta-endorphins,
endogenous opioids which inhibit transmission of pain signals (Levine et al.,
1978). Thus, in addition to being a response to a stressor, the release of
endorphins might occur under the psychological conditions known to induce an
expectation of benefit.
Psychological Support Psychological support includes describing to
patients how they can expect to feel following surgery or trauma (see appraisal
section below) and other general psychotherapeutic efforts that reduce anxiety
and depression.
Sensory and Procedural Information Classic work by Janis (1958) showed
that surgery patients with moderate levels of anticipatory fear suffered less pain
postoperatively than patients with either low or high levels of such fear. His work
was followed by Egbert et al. (1963, 1964), who found that providing patients
with information preoperatively about their surgery led to their being released
earlier and experiencing less pain.
Sensory information involves telling patients what sensations to expect
during or after a medical procedure; procedural information entails telling them
about the medical procedure itself. The former tends to be more helpful for most
people than the latter (Johnson, 1983), probably

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because of lessened anxiety that comes from knowing that certain sensations are
normal. Having been told that a certain kind and degree of pain is to be expected, a
patient may be less concerned about the pain being experienced because it is not
construed as a sign that something is wrong. When procedural information helps,
it may be due to the opportunity it allows a patient to rehearse the upcoming
event in his or her imagination and thus become desensitized to the anxiety
associated with the event (Wolpe, 1958).
Relaxation Training Relaxation training is a powerful treatment for
increasing pain tolerance in some situations. For example, patients instructed in
breathing and relaxation prior to their first attempt to get out of bed after surgery
reported less incisional pain and used fewer analgesics than control patients
(Flaherty and Fitzpatrick, 1978). In the laboratory, relaxation has been effective
for reducing cold pressor pain (pain produced by immersing the hand in ice
water) and also for decreasing pain ratings (e.g., Stevens and Heide, 1977; Stone
et al., 1977). This effect is likely due to reducing anxiety and increasing a sense
of control (Peck, 1986).
Enhancement of Personal Control As already mentioned, people generally
experience less pain and stress if they can exercise a degree of control. An
intriguing and promising medico-psychological procedure is a patient-controlled
analgesia (PCA) machine that allows a patient to administer his or her own pain
killers with a preset upper limit. Such a device and procedure would be expected
to impart a sense of greater control, and it has been found that patients achieve
better relief from pain with the PCA and even use less analgesic medication
(White, 1986). A recent study with labor pain showed that satisfaction was very
high: patients preferred the PCA to techniques that actually reduce pain intensity
more completely, such as epidural morphine. In general, being active rather than
passive is better because activity can be distracting in itself (see Gal and Lazarus,
1975).
Many empirical findings support the notion that if patients do not believe
that they can control or terminate an aversive event, it is perceived as more
painful (e.g., Averill, 1973). A PCA machine allows a patient an increased degree
of control over a noxious event, which theoretically should decrease both anxiety
and perceived pain. Of course, having a PCA machine means a patient's attention
must be engaged to administer the analgesia, and so must be focusing on pain.
But this would be true in any case. In traditional nurse-administered analgesia, a
patient is often very focused on the pain because the system requires that a
patient wait until the pain is substantial before requesting medications. And even
after a patient requests the medication, he or she must wait

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until the nurse has the time to fulfill the request. This alternative obviously does
not allow the patient to be distracted from the pain. In fact, quite the opposite.
Under certain conditions, distraction can be pain reducing, as discussed in the
next section.
Cognitive Coping Skills Training There are two main cognitive strategies
proposed for pain relief (Turk et al., 1983), and they are more useful for mild to
moderate pain than for extreme pain: to alter a person's appraisal of pain and to
direct attention away from pain.
One strategy of cognitive coping involves providing information about
painful medical procedures (Janis, 1958). Such information may lead to enhanced
self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) because a person acquires information that can be
used to take effective coping action (Anderson and Masur, 1983). For example, a
person about to have a dye injected for assessment purposes could be told that
“When the dye is injected (procedural), you will feel a hot flash
(sensory)” (Anderson and Masur, 1983:10).
Six types of diversion strategies can be distinguished:
• imagination-inattention: pleasant imagery incompatible with feeling pain,
such as imagining something very positive during dental treatment (Horan et
al., 1976);
• imaginative transformation of pain: reinterpreting pain into a sensation like
numbness, something that is a part of Lamaze “natural childbirth” training, in
which women are encouraged to substitute “pressure” for pain;
• imaginative transfer of context: reframing the pain in some other context so
as to interrupt the flow of negative thinking and facilitate the generation of
coping strategies;
• external attention-diversion: focusing on external aspects of the environment,
such as counting ceiling tiles (Barber and Cooper, 1972);
• internal attention-diversion: focusing attention on other self-generated
thoughts, such as doing complex mathematical operations; and
• dissociation from pain: thinking that a painful bodily part, e.g. an arm,
belongs to someone else.
The first, second, and sixth of these strategies were found by Tan (1982) to
be the most helpful. We note that many of these strategies are sometimes
embedded in hypnotic inductions.
All of these techniques for diverting attention from painful stimulation are
consistent with cognitive research, which shows a limited supply of attentional
resources: attention to one channel of input blocks the processing of input on
other channels (Kahneman, 1973).
Stress Inoculation Training “Stress inoculation training” refers to the kinds
of strategies just described (Turk et al., 1983). The approach

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basically entails three interrelated steps: educating a person about the nature of
pain; describing in detail the techniques available for coping with pain; and
encouraging practice in and application of techniques that make sense to the
patient. (The other usage of the term refers to training techniques, as in sports,
whereby a person is presented with a challenge beyond the level that is likely to
be encountered in game conditions, such as setting a pitching machine to hurl a
baseball at 110 miles per hour.)
Biofeedback Biofeedback refers in general to the use of sophisticated
instrumentation that provides a person immediate information on minute changes
in such functions as muscle activity, heart rate, and blood pressure. This
knowledge can be used by the person to control such somatic and autonomic
activity to some extent.
Some fairly controlled studies (reviewed by Chapman, 1986) show that
biofeedback from tension of muscles in the forehead is significantly better than
no treatment or a placebo in reducing subjective ratings of chronic headache
pain. There is no evidence, however, that biofeedback is superior to relaxation
training alone in reducing acute pain; its effectiveness is most likely mediated by
reducing anxiety (Gatchel et al., 1989), perhaps by enhancing sense of control.
Hypnosis The history of anesthesia is closely connected with hypnosis, for
hypnosis was used widely in the middle and late nineteenth century by physicians
like Bernheim and Charcot to reduce pain. The introduction of ether and other
anesthetic drugs diminished the use of hypnosis, although it has been enjoying a
resurgence of interest in childbirth, dentistry, and in treating the pain brought on
by a variety of assessment and medical procedures (Hilgard and Hilgard, 1975).
Except for its relaxation components, it is doubtful that putting someone into a
hypnotic trance by itself reduces pain. Rather it is the suggestions that are given
that are operative, such as intimating that a limb has become numb or that it is
not one's own, or that “strong sensations” will “not matter.” It is believed that
cognitive strategies of diversion or dissociation can be strengthened by
encouraging their use under hypnosis. A limiting factor, of course, is that people
vary widely on how susceptible they are to hypnosis.

TREATING CHRONIC PAIN

As we have just seen, treating acute pain is concerned primarily with
reducing nociception and influencing psychological factors in the perception of
nociception. With chronic pain, the focus is on decreasing suffering, whether pain
related or not, and decreasing pain behaviors

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and disability. It should be emphasized at the outset that success in the

management of chronic pain is often not associated with reduction in reports of
the experience of pain; rather, with reduction in such things as medication usage
and with increase in activity (Fordyce et al., 1973). The goal is far less on
nociception and the experience of pain than it is on “working through the pain”
and adopting a “no pain no gain” philosophy that encourages restoration of
function. This emphasis on pain behaviors is important (Gatchel et al., 1989). The
idea is to “tough it out.” What often happens is that increased activity can reduce
nociception, as with back sprains, for which increase in muscle tone can itself
reduce nociception over time as well as reduce chances of recurrence of acute
attacks.
The principal researcher in this area is William Fordyce at the University of
Washington, and his program is of the “pure operant” variety that rewards the
patient for gradually increasing general activity level and social interaction,
decreasing the use of pain medication, and reducing reliance on all pain-related
health care services.
Fordyce's group focuses on the modification of maladaptive learned
contingencies. Over time pain behaviors get reinforced by attention, nurturance,
rest, avoidance of responsibilities and other burdens, and the receipt of money for
disability. At the same time, healthy behavior is not reinforced or is even
punished, possibly by cut-off of benefits or by a family worried about the
patient's efforts to “get going.” Fordyce's basic approach is to reverse the
contingencies. The results are very positive in enabling chronic pain patients to
regain functions that have been compromised by pain and suffering (see, e.g.,
Fordyce, 1976). Other behavioral programs that add to the basic approach include
relaxation training and group discussion and support.
Another approach to treating chronic pain is through cognitive
interventions, such as reducing stress with the use of covert self-statements that
serve to decatastrophize the pain (Turk, 1978; Ellis, 1962; and Meichenbaum and
Cameron, 1983).
The old-fashioned method of “counter irritation” has been more formally
developed into a method of intervention which is generally referred to as
“stimulation-produced analgesia.” Neurostimulatory techniques for pain control
include central stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, and peripheral stimulation.
Peripheral stimulation is an outgrowth of what previously was referred to as
counter irritation. It now involves mechanical or electrical stimulation of the
peripheral nerves in the form of acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical nerve
stimulation (TENS), and intramuscular injection of a local anesthetic to alleviate
pain, increase range of motion, and enhance exercise tolerance. These methods
are often used for the management of chronic pain, and they are generally

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administered by physicians or physical medicine specialists rather than

psychologists. To the extent that counter irritation is helpful by providing a
distraction, psychologists have developed many interventions (e.g., guided
imagery, cognitive distraction techniques, hypnotic suggestion) that utilize
distraction to manage both acute and chronic pain.
In general, a patient needs to learn about pain, particularly the distinction
among the four aspects of pain, and the utility of various approaches for dealing
with each one, especially suffering and pain behavior, which are separate from
the acute nociception-pain phases that do require and merit medical attention.
There is a wide variety of diseases and medical conditions for which
accepted (pharmacologic or otherwise somatic) treatment does not provide
complete relief. Examples of these are rheumatoid arthritis, pneumococcal
pneumonia, and degenerative spinal disease. Furthermore, there are diseases,
some of them progressive, for which there is no known treatment for the pain they
cause. Examples include terminal cancers and central pain conditions such as
thalamic pain syndrome. For these latter problems, integrating psychological and
somatic interventions often constitutes the most promising approach.

CONCLUSIONS
There is encouraging evidence in the pain-control literature that people can
be taught nonpharmacological ways to cope with physical pain. Many of the
procedures known to be useful for reducing anxiety also favorably influence pain
because alleviating stress is known to decrease a person's experience of pain.
Central to current understanding of pain is the role of cognitive factors, that
is, a person's construals of nociceptive input can have a profound effect on
whether and how severely he or she actually experiences pain. Of particular
importance are perceived control and the meaning attached to a painful
experience. Procedures that enhance a person's control or sense of control appear
to reduce pain because of the often demonstrated reduction of anxiety associated
with increased control.
For many individuals, information about what to expect from painful
experiences, such as surgery, reduces the experience of pain. Distraction is an
effective strategy for coping with pain. Relaxation training is also useful for
controlling pain, perhaps due in part to distraction as well as to the reduction of
worry and anxiety. Suggestions given under hypnosis to susceptible individuals
can also help them cope with pain, for example, imagining that an affected limb
is not really a part of them.
Chronic pain can be managed by identifying and controlling psychological

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perpetuating factors. In most cases this would involve combining a variety of

pure behavior-learning approaches with other cognitive-behavioral and relaxation
interventions to encourage a patient to increase activity level even if experiencing
discomfort and pain.

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 148

9
Hiding and Detecting Deception

This chapter considers two broad questions: Can a deceiver be detected

under conditions in which he or she is generally unaware of being suspected? Can a
deceiver avoid being detected under those conditions? These questions largely
rule out the use of polygraph tests, “truth” serums, and other invasive techniques
for detecting deception, and no attempt is made to review the large literature on
those techniques. (Interested readers are referred to reviews of the literature and
discussions of the complex issues surrounding the use of invasive lie-detection
techniques; see, especially, Ben-Shakhar et al., 1982; Lykken, 1981, 1985;
Raskin, 1987.)
The possibilities for detecting deception under noninvasive conditions
depend either on the content of the supplied information or on nonverbal
behaviors inadvertently “leaked” by the subject. The content of the supplied
information may be suspect because it is inconsistent with other information
supplied by the subject or because it is inconsistent with information from other
sources. The nonverbal information may also be suspect because of divergences
from expressions or postures seen in other situations or because of known
deception clues observed by the detector. In this chapter we deal primarily with
deception clues that can be detected from nonverbal behavior.
The key assumption underlying the hope for detecting deception from
nonverbal behavior is that a person, when knowingly lying or deceiving, enters a
psychological state that differs from the state he or she is in when telling the
truth. These psychological states, the deceptive and the honest, are further
assumed to affect both verbal and nonverbal channels

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 149

of communication. These channels, in turn, can be monitored by a detector's

unaided perceptual processes. When one or more channels provide cues that
“betray” the person's deceptions, researchers claim that leakage has occurred.
Within this framework, several possibilities arise. The simplest is that
deception leaks in predictable ways for all people regardless of differences in
experience or culture: the predictability would derive from a fixed set of
communication cues, such as body movements, rather than facial expressions.
More complicated are the possibilities that a variety of behavioral patterns are
diagnostic, depending on a person's experience, training, and cultural background
or the particular circumstances under which he or she is being observed.
Moreover, it is possible that individuals are conscious about such cues and can
manage the expressions or movements being monitored by an observer.
This chapter reviews ongoing research programs that focus on those issues:
what has been learned from laboratory studies on deception and what needs to be
learned through further experimental research. (The next chapter is more
conceptual, reviewing various taxonomies and frameworks designed to broaden
the concept of deception.) We also discuss the issue of cultural and other
subpopulation differences in the interpretation and execution of deception in the
context of generality of findings obtained in laboratory studies with American
subjects.

PHYSICAL INDICATORS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL STATES

Although the problem of inferring specific psychological states from specific
observed behaviors is quite complex, there is little doubt about the existence of
linkages between internal states and external behaviors. A large research
literature on nonverbal behaviors associated with emotions and intentions has
made apparent the value of using such behaviors as windows on underlying
psychological states.1 The focus of this section is more specialized: to draw on
relevant parts of the large literature on nonverbal behaviors for insights and
suggestions for research on nonverbal indicators of deception.

The Laboratory Paradigm

Most of the contemporary experimental research on deception involves the
communication of false verbal statements made with intent to deceive.
Researchers are interested in the cues sent by deceivers and the cues used by
receivers to detect deception; the cues consist, for the most part, of nonverbal
behaviors coded systematically from replays of videotaped simulated
performances (speeches, interviews), usually enacted

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by college students. This situation represents a particular type of lie captured by

Knapp and Comadena's definition (1979:271) as “the conscious alteration of
information a person believes to be true in order to significantly change another's
perceptions from what the deceiver thought they would be without the alteration.”
It is less relevant to other forms of deception (as discussed in the next chapter).
The experiments have examined deception from the standpoint of a sender,
who is perpetrating a lie or being honest, and from the standpoint of an observer,
who attempts to detect whether a particular communication is deceptive or
truthful. Experiments concerned primarily with senders ask subjects to convey
false (or true) information, usually in response to questions from an interviewer
who may be evaluating candidates for a job, interrogating suspects about a crime,
or asking about issues in world affairs or local politics.
One series of studies asked subjects to take the role of the Soviet
ambassador to the United States. In that role, subjects were interviewed for 15
minutes (in a “Meet the Press” format) about three then-current events: the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Soviet military activities in Cuba, and Soviet
troops in Europe. Three experimental conditions consisted of misrepresenting
actual Soviet policy (deception), avoiding direct answers to the questions being
asked (evasion), and conveying actual Soviet policy as communicated to you
(honesty). Other types of scenarios used in these experiments include car sales,
making speeches about academic topics, conveying feelings about hospital
scenes, and interactions stylized in the form of candid-camera situations. In all of
these experiments, subjects' nonverbal behaviors are coded in each of several
channels of communication: facial expressions, body movements, visual
behavior, paralanguage (verbal utterances other than the content of the message).
The coded behaviors are analyzed for differences by condition, which is usually a
comparison of deceitful and honest communications.
Experiments concerned primarily with observers ask subjects to rate taped
enactments of senders in a previous experiment or actors whose scripts were
prepared by the experimenter. For example, in one experiment, observers were
asked to rate the sales pitches made by salespersons with experience on incentive
pay plans and automobile customers with experience in bargaining for trade-in
allowances. In another experiment, observers rated the descriptions of student
nurses' feelings about a film that was intended to arouse either positive or
negative reactions; nurses in the deception condition were asked to conceal their
actual feelings aroused by the negative film. In all of these experiments,
observers report their perceptions of the communicators' deceptiveness, usually
on a numerical scale that discriminates degrees of deceptiveness

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or honesty. Observers are also asked to indicate the extent to which they are
confident in making these judgments. A variety of other impressions of
communicators have been assessed in experiments, including, for example, liking
for the product, anxiety, confidence, suspicion, aggressiveness, and comfort. The
ratings of deception are analyzed for accuracy and related to expressed
confidence. They are also correlated with particular nonverbal channels or
behaviors used in the enactment and with the other impressions rated by the
observer. The results obtained from both types of experiments are reviewed in the
following sections, focusing first on the nonverbal behaviors displayed by
subjects and then on the accuracy of observers who attempt to detect the
deception portrayed by others.

Leakage
The relevance of nonverbal behaviors as clues to deception derives from the
assumption that these behaviors, in particular, will leak information that a person
is trying to hide. The rationale for this assumption is provided by Ekman and
Friesen (1969) in terms of the variables of automaticity and controllability.
These variables refer to the relationship between emotions and behavior.
According to Ekman (1981:271): “When emotion is aroused certain changes
occur in the face, body, and voice which can be considered automatic.” Such
automatic links present a problem for deceivers who attempt to control their
nonverbal behavior during deception: they must override these links in order to
avoid leakage. Some nonverbal cues are more likely to be controlled than others.
Words and facial expressions have been found to be easier to control than body
and tone of voice cues (Ekman, 1981; Zuckerman et al., 1981). Thus, deceivers
should be most successful when using words, next most successful when using
facial expressions, and least successful when using body movements and tone of
voice cues. Indeed, according to the DePaulo et al. (1985) review of the evidence
on detection, both body cues and tone of voice cues were found to be more
revealing than facial cues. Less clear, however, are the results on verbal cues:
these cues were found to be informative and revealing (see DePaulo et al., 1985,
for an explanation).
Nonverbal cues that reveal deception to observers should also distinguish
between the actual enactments of deceivers and truth tellers. In their early
experiment on leakage, Ekman and Friesen's (1969) deceivers claimed that they
attempted to disguise the face more than the body while perpetrating the
deception. The discriminating cues provided by the body included decreasing use
of hand illustrators (movements used for emphasis), increased use of self-
adapters (movements directed toward

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one part of the body by another), and more postural position shifts for deceivers.
More illustrator movements also were used by the deceivers (compared to truth
tellers) in Mehrabian's (1972) study, while increased self-adapters and postural
shifts were also found for the deceiving subjects in the McClintock and Hunt
(1975) interview study. Further confirmative evidence was obtained by the
Druckman et al. (1982) finding of coordinated body movements for deceivers:
rocking, headshaking, trunk swivels, and nodding movements varied together.
That study also found more fidgeting with objects for deceivers and more leg
movements for evaders (indirect deception). Two studies reported differences in
vocal cues: Mehrabian (1971) showed more speech errors as deviations from
baseline data; DePaulo et al. (1980) found tone of voice differences between
deceivers and truth tellers. Taken together, these findings suggest where to look
for clues to deceptive intentions. They do not, however, provide evidence for the
specific role played by psychological states or emotions.
The concept of leakage is based on a model that construes psychological
states or emotions as variables that mediate the relationship between nonverbal
behaviors and intentions (see Druckman et al., 1982: Figure 1.1). While
demonstrating the importance of these intervening variables, the results reported
by Druckman et al. (1982) also illustrate the complexity of the relationships.
Subjects (interviewees playing the role of the Soviet ambassador to the United
States) in each of three experimental conditions (honesty, evasion, and deception)
indicated their feelings on a postinterview questionnaire consisting of 26 bipolar
adjective scales. The ratings were analyzed for condition differences and for
correlations with each of 25 nonverbal behaviors coded for all subjects. Three
types of states seemed to capture the diverse relationships obtained among these
variables: involvement, stress, and confidence. Honest and evasive subjects
displayed behaviors whose meaning indicated involvement. Evasive and
deceptive subjects displayed behaviors that correlated with feelings of stress or
tension. Subjects in all three conditions showed behaviors related to feelings of
confidence or effectiveness. This evidence suggests which emotions reflect
primarily honesty (feelings of involvement), direct and indirect deception
(stress), and role-playing, which is characteristic of all three conditions
(confidence). Interestingly, evasive subjects showed relations between nonverbal
behaviors and two emotions, one found primarily for honest subjects
(involvement), the other found primarily for deceivers (stress). This result is
consistent with the definitions of evaders as being neither completely honest nor
completely deceptive.
The results also identified a subset of nonverbal behaviors that indicate
either high or low involvement, stress, or confidence: for example,

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looking at versus looking away from the interviewer as an indicator of high or low
involvement for honest subjects or as an indicator of stress for evaders, shoulder
shrugs versus trunk swivels as an indicator of high and low stress experienced by
deceivers (see Druckman et al., 1982:Table 4.10). Supporting the concept of
leakage, these findings highlight the role played by emotions or feelings in the
process of making inferences from nonverbal behaviors to intentions. However,
they also make evident some of the difficulties involved in the task of diagnosing
deception or other intentions. In some cases, different nonverbal behaviors have
similar meanings for different intentions, that is, they are functionally equivalent
behaviors. In other cases, different nonverbal behaviors reflect different feelings
for the same intention, as well as for different intentions. The challenge for
researchers is to isolate the unique relationships between particular nonverbal
behaviors and underlying feelings for particular intentions. These would be cues
that diagnosticians could use with confidence; they have not yet been identified.

Motivated Liars
There seems to be a relationship between motivation to deceive and success
at deceiving (DePaulo et al., 1985). The question asked is whether highly
motivated deceivers are easier or harder to detect than their less well-motivated
counterparts, that is, when the stakes for successful deception are either high or
low. This question has implications for differences between professionals (higher
stakes) and the amateurs used in most laboratory experiments (lower stakes).
Results obtained from two experiments (summarized in DePaulo et al., 1985) are
quite intriguing. When motivation to lie was high (e.g., deceivers were being
monitored by a panel of their peers), nonverbal cues were more revealing than
verbal clues; when motivation was low (e.g., deceivers were to play a “little”
game), verbal cues were more revealing. The highly motivated deceivers were
accurately detected by observers more often than the less highly motivated
deceivers if the observers could see the nonverbal behaviors. When judges only
had access to verbal statements, the highly motivated deceivers were quite
successful (and more successful than their less motivated counterparts) in their
deception. According to DePaulo et al. (1985:334): “the harder senders try to get
away with their lies, the less successful they will be (when their nonverbal
behaviors are showing).”
An explanation for these findings is that when emotionality is high, as it
would be for high-stakes' performances, nonverbal leaks are more likely to occur.
The highly motivated deceivers in the experiments of DePaulo and her colleagues
showed more behavioral inhibition and rigidity,

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as well as more negativity, than the deceivers who were less motivated. The
motivated deceivers may think that they are using a safe strategy by not moving,
which they equate with not revealing, but this strategy backfired for reasons
understandable in terms of the concept of leakage. Based on an hydraulic model
analogy, attempts to control one channel of communication (e.g., facial
expressions) leads to excessive activity in another channel (e.g., body
movements). A more direct test of this hypothesis would be a comparison of
conditions in which subjects are told to control their faces or their bodies while
deceiving; more body activity in the former condition and more facial activity in
the latter (in comparison with a baseline control condition) would support this
hypothesis. This experiment has been done, and analyses are in progress.2
An implication of this research is that people are betrayed by their
nonverbal behaviors in situations in which they are most motivated not to be
detected. This implication is especially relevant for the challenges confronting
professional deceivers (such as spies). From the standpoint of detectors, it would
seem appropriate to monitor the unattended channels, that is, either those
channels under less control by the deceiver or those that he or she believes are
not being observed. For nonprofessionals, whether or not the challenge for
successful deception is high, nonverbal deception cues are likely to be derived
from different emotions: insecurity and concern about the managed impressions
being conveyed (due in part to a lack of practice), guilt or anxiety about a morally
dubious act, tension caused by the complexity inherent in a deceptive
performance. The nonverbal behaviors that derive from these feelings may well
differ from those that are the result of leakage. However, deceptive contexts vary
considerably on a number of dimensions, and these dimensions of the situation
affect both the displays shown by senders and impressions made by observers.

Faulty Detection
It is clear from the research on detecting deception that people have trouble
distinguishing between lies and truthful statements. For samples of college
students, there is a discernible bias in favor of judging messages as truthful when
the frequency of lies and truth is about 50-50 (DePaulo et al., 1985). People who
are professional lie detectors, on the other hand, evince a “deception bias,” that
is, they judge most (truthful and deceptive) messages as being deceptive
(O'Sullivan et al., 1988); also see Kraut and Poe's (1980) study of customs
inspectors, Hendershot and Hess' (1982) study of police detectives, and the
Druckman et al. (1982) study of oil company executives. Both types of samples
usually

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do no better than chance in accurately detecting deception: college students judge

actual truthfulness more accurately than actual deception, while professionals are
somewhat more accurate at judging actual deception than actual truthfulness.
Despite the poor accuracy, however, both college students and experts indicate
high confidence in their judgments (Druckman et al., 1982), and confidence may
actually increase with experience (DePaulo et al., 1985). Of interest, then, is the
question of why it is so difficult to detect deception.
The weak correspondence between actual and perceived deception cues
suggests that the folk wisdom about how deceivers are supposed to act (e.g., less
gaze, smile less, postural shifts, longer response time) are not diagnostic of
deception. They are, however, widely held cultural stereotypes, and they are
easier to predict than the actual cues that are likely to be more sensitive to
context (DePaulo et al., 1985; O'Sullivan et al., 1988). Recent results reported by
Bond et al. (1990) suggest that the stereotypes may be cross-cultural: their
American and Jordanian subjects used similar nonverbal cues in making
judgments of deception, which were inaccurate, evincing what is known as a
“demeanor bias” (judgments based on the target's apparent honesty or dishonesty
rather than the perceiver's detection skills). Modeling indicates that the
dimensions used by judges of deception were the well-known impressions of
appearing apprehensive and undependable, often looking away from the camera,
fidgeting with objects, and a relatively poor sense of humor (Druckman et al.,
1982). Yet, these impressions were misleading. The connection between observed
behavior and impressions, on the one hand, and between impressions of emotions
and intentions on the other were inaccurate.
One proposed explanation for these results is that detectors in the
experiments rarely get feedback about whether the sender was actually lying or
telling the truth. Without feedback, detectors cannot correct their judgments and
the cues used in making these decisions. Another proposed explanation is that
detectors are often insufficiently suspicious about the possibility that deception
might be occurring; without being alert to the possibility, detectors are unlikely to
search for diagnostic cues. Neither of these explanations is supported by
research, however. Feedback does not serve to revise detectors' theories; rather,
they tend to select “evidence” that supports their initial judgment and, in fact,
increased their confidence in the (inaccurate) judgments (DePaulo et al., 1985).
Similarly, increased suspiciousness does not improve accuracy although it may
serve to decrease confidence in judgments. Other proposed explanations for the
difficulty of detecting deception (O'Sullivan et al., 1988) include: the task of
detecting strangers (used in most studies) is more difficult than detecting friends;
detectors confuse the

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distinction between negative and positive emotions with lying versus telling the
truth; some types of lies are easier to detect than others; and some liars may be
better at lying than others. Each of these explanations is an empirical issue that
can eventually be resolved by research; until then, it should be possible on the
basis of what is known to improve accuracy even for detecting the lies of
strangers in fleeting situations, for uncovering subtle lies, and for recognizing
skilled liars.

IMPROVING DETECTION

Training
Detecting another person's intentions is a learned skill. As with other skills,
it has been shown to improve with age and training. A number of studies
(summarized in DePaulo et al., 1985) have shown that during adolescence,
perceivers become increasingly sensitive to issues of sincerity and deceit (e.g.,
Flavell, 1977). The studies also indicate that children do progressively better as
they get older at distinguishing between direct deception, on the one hand, and
exaggerations, omissions, or slight distortions on the other.
Sensitivity to nonverbal deception clues contribute to detection accuracy.
Such sensitivity may be related to the nature of one's job experience. A recent
experiment assessed the detection accuracy of 509 professionals from agencies
and occupations in which lie detection is part of the job: the Central Intelligence
Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency,
police, and judges (Ekman and O'Sullivan, 1991). Their results show that
accuracy was not related to occupation and actually decreased with age and
experience for some occupational groups. Closer examination of the accurate
detectors revealed, however, that the critical variable may be job function. People
in jobs in which they must interact with others on a regular basis were better
detectors than those in administrative positions; the former tended to be younger
than the latter due at least in part to promotions of relatively older workers to
administrative positions. In addition to job tasks, frequent social interaction helps
people detect deceivers. Knowing what to look for—in the sense of distinguishing
critical from noncritical cues—and how to process those cues helps more.
Improvement can be accelerated further by training that is designed
specifically to take advantage of relevant information. Lie-detection success
improves when subjects are prompted to pay special attention to tone of voice
cues (DePaulo et al., 1982; see also Zuckerman et al., 1985). Success also
improved for subjects who are given a technical briefing intended to separate the
nonverbal signals from the nonverbal

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“noise” (Druckman et al., 1982). In addition to specific nonverbal cues, subjects

have been shown to do better when they pay attention to behaviors that are related
to deceptiveness, such as ambivalence or tension (DePaulo et al., 1982).
It is clear that specialized training can make a difference. Less clear,
however, are the specific dimensions of training likely to have the strongest
impact. Three of the dimensions suggested are whether to focus on particular
behaviors or psychological states (see above), to examine the difference between
judging friends versus strangers (see O'Sullivan et al., 1988), and to compare
different groups of detectors who vary in terms of their motivation and
experience (see O'Sullivan et al., 1988). With regard to the difference between
cues shown by deceiving friends and strangers, Buller and Aune (1987) found
that friends attempt to control their arousal and negative affect cues more than
strangers, although other cues were leaked by friends perhaps as a result of the
masking.
The judgment heuristics used by observers are also interesting. An
evaluation of alternative detection strategies indicate that providing observers
with an information-processing approach to detection improves accuracy
considerably. Referred to as “inference training,” the strategy consists of an
organized method for processing information about several critical cues (see
Druckman et al., 1982:Figure 5.1). Significant gains in accuracy were found for
subjects who were trained to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant cues (a
technical briefing) and presented a strategy for processing the relevant cues.
Judgments about another's intentions are based on both available information
(observed cues) and the way the information is processed (judgment heuristic).
An inappropriate strategy can lead to the wrong judgment, despite accurate
information about the relevant cues.3
The gains obtained for inference training are consistent with research
findings from cognitive social psychology (see, e.g., Nisbett and Ross, 1980). By
taking account of combination rules and sequencing of behaviors, a processing
strategy captures the concept of “display package,” that is, the way that
nonverbal behaviors are displayed for particular emotions or intentions. To be
useful, however, the strategy must process known deception cues. The research
uncovered the relevant cues in a first stage, followed by training detectors to use
them in arriving at decisions about actors whose displays were based on the
earlier findings. This requirement poses a dilemma for detection in situations in
which the cues are unknown. The detector must either rely on the possibility of
universal cues or suspend judgment until he or she has had more experience with
the suspected deceiver. But it is unlikely that there are universal cues (see
discussion below on context), and suspending

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judgment may not be viable under certain circumstances, e.g., a fleeting

interaction with a suspected terrorist. Although there are no obvious nostrums to
guide a detector in these situations, there may be useful ways to approach the
problem (see next section on the role of analytical methodologies).
Further progress on the problem of detecting deception may depend on
advances in methodology. One promising avenue is to apply the sophisticated
approaches developed in other fields in which systematic diagnostic efforts have
been made. Recent work in radiology provides a good example of decision aids
that can determine the maximal accuracy provided by the cues. The aids address
the general question: What are the relative weights of the possibly diagnostic
clues (when their scale of values are merged to determine a probability of
deception) that will maximize detection accuracy in each of the relevant
deception contexts (see, e.g., Swets et al., 1991; Getty et al., 1988; Swets, 1988).
Answering this question would go a long way toward a technique for training
detectors.

Using Analytical Methodologies

The knowledge base for understanding the physical indicators of deception
consists almost entirely of laboratory studies (reviewed above). A concern is
whether, and to what extent, the results of those studies have relevance for other
settings. Commenting on differences between the conditions of laboratory
research and less formal observations outside the laboratory, Doob (1975)
distinguishes between “professional” and “lay” observers. Professionals
systematically decode nonverbal behaviors, channel by channel, from replays of
videotaped performances (usually enacted by college students). Lay observers
gain impressions of psychological states from a large number of relatively
fleeting expressions, body movements, or vocalizations seen in particular social
or cultural settings. Based on these different sources of information and
approaches, Doob suggests two possibilities: experimental results do not aid the
task of deciphering clues in the real world, and lay observers cannot use a
professional's systematic approach for inferring intentions from behavior (see
Doob's [1975:115-135] discussion of nonverbal symbols).
Doob's grim outlook for applying laboratory results and deriving accurate
inferences from informal observations is only one interpretation of the problem.
Another interpretation provides a more optimistic outlook in three ways. First,
experimental results can highlight what to look for in broader terms than specific
nonverbal behaviors (e.g., abrupt changes, leaks), and some findings have
widespread generality (e.g., micromomentary facial expressions for emotions,
sources of detection

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inaccuracies). Second, the approach of systematic observation with notation or

coding rules, used in laboratory studies, can also be used for making informed
observations outside a laboratory. Third, a lay observer has the advantage of
viewing behavior within its context or cultural setting, helping to improve
interpretations.
A lay observer can benefit from the laboratory-based research on deception
clues. The research serves to direct an observer's attention to particular themes:
for example, incongruities or inconsistencies between verbal and nonverbal
behaviors for indicators of stress or irritability, tone-of-voice deviations from
baseline observations for possible deception, and an increased intensity of
behaviors in a variety of channels for commitment to policies. These themes call
attention to relationships, particular nonverbal channels, or to the amount of
feelings (see Rozelle et al., 1986, for an elaboration of these themes). Also,
paying attention to qualities related to deception, such as ambivalence,
indifference, and tension, has been shown to increase detection accuracy
(DePaulo et al., 1982). Actual cues to deception reflect feelings of being less
confident, more insecure, more self-conscious (due perhaps to a lack of practice
at deceiving), and guilt since the act is morally dubious in most societies. This is
useful information, even though it is based on averages across many subjects in
different experimental situations. Intuitions about these and related qualities may
improve lay observers' detection accuracy.
Laboratory research has contributed techniques for analysis that are also
useful in field settings. Notation systems for coding nonverbal behaviors enable
an analyst, who must respond to time-sensitive requests, to identify a subset of
behaviors for on-the-spot commentary. A government or corporate analyst is
frequently asked to provide interpretations without the benefits of penetrating
analysis, extensive video footage, or hindsight, and coding systems are especially
useful under these conditions. They provide an analyst with a structure for
focusing attention on relevant details: for example, behaviors that change quickly
(micro-momentary expressions) or obviously (incongruities), and those that occur
within the time frame of a statement (leaks). These are the kinds of observations
that can be used for making inferences from limited data. They may also be
useful for an analyst who has access to more data (extended videotape coverage)
and is given more time to develop interpretations. Under these conditions, it is
possible to perform systematic analyses that include charting trends over time,
making comparisons, and developing profiles. Each of these tasks is aided by a
coding system that encompasses a range of situations, purposes of appearances
(speech, interview, casual interactions), and verbal statements, as well as types of
displayed nonverbal behaviors (channels and specific movements or
expressions). By categorizing videotapes in this manner, it

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becomes feasible to test hypotheses about relationships, for example, between

situations and observed behaviors. Analyzed over time, these relationships would
highlight the influence of context (as varied situations) on nonverbal behavior.
Unlike laboratory researchers, field analysts (and lay observers) can develop
interpretations based on observations of “subjects” in real world contexts. In
essence, he or she can follow a subject, and, by so doing, record nonverbal
behavior displays that occur under a variety of circumstances. These comparisons
contribute to the development of profiles of coordinated movements that may
change over time and situations. The coordinated movements can also be depicted
in animated graphic displays (see Badler and Smoliar, 1979, for examples). Such
displays illuminate “postural” or expression differences in the same people over
time and also among people.4 When associated with specific events and context,
the displays lead to the question: How are the feelings and intentions that are
evoked by different situations represented in body movements? When compared
with displays shown by people in other cultural settings, the coded observations
raise the question: What are the contributions of culture to observed nonverbal
behaviors?

CONTEXT AND CULTURE

There is no reason to expect that a particular set of nonverbal behaviors is
associated with every type of deceiver and every type of deceit. As noted by
DePaulo et al. (1985:343):
Deceptive contexts vary considerably in the emotions, motivations, and
expectations that they engender in the deceivers, and they also impose different
cognitive-processing demands. As these and other important dimensions of
deceptive contexts vary so, too, may the specific behaviors that distinguish lies
from truths.
In other words, the critical physical clues to deception are likely to be
situation and culture specific. Behaviors observed in one setting are likely to
generalize only to other similar settings. A more complete understanding of the
nonverbal indicators of intentions would result from frameworks that match
behaviors to situations, that is, research-based taxonomies of situations and
behaviors. Without such a framework, it is difficult to know the extent to which
findings obtained from experiments with college students or amateurs apply also
to people in occupations in which deception is assumed to be practiced and that
people would like to detect (see, e.g., Doob, 1975). Referred to as a context-
relevant approach to research (Druckman et al., 1982; Mahoney and Druckman,
1975), these observations are captured also by Ekman's (1978) concept of display
rules.

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Display Rules
Defined originally with regard to facial expressions, display rules are
culturally learned “rules” for managing expressions. They serve to modify
expressions in keeping with the demands of the social situation and may also
reflect the cognitive processing that precedes the observed expression. Whether
display rules are the primary determinant of observed nonverbal behaviors is an
empirical issue that is captured in terms of the debate between universal and
culturally specific bases for expressions. This debate has been the basis for a
large number of cross-cultural experiments on facial expressions by Ekman and
his colleagues. While not resolving the debate clearly in favor of the one or other
explanation, their interpretation of the findings suggests that while the distinctive
appearance of the face may be universal—that is, unique muscle movements are
made for each primary emotion—the particular expression that appears in certain
circumstances varies with culture (see below). However, these experiments have
not investigated the role of culture in other channels of nonverbal expression. Nor
did they focus specifically on cues to deception.

Culture and Facial Expressions

In spite of the fact that most literature on nonverbal behavior notes the
importance of context and agrees that expressions of senders and theories of
detectors are conditioned by rather specific environments, there is very little
evidence that demonstrates such relationships. The number of cross-cultural
studies is small, and there are practically no studies on cultural similarities and
differences in deceiving or detecting deception. One issue, however, has received
considerable attention by Ekman and his collaborators, namely, the debate
between universal and culturally specific facial expressions.
Channel-by-channel reviews of nonverbal behavior studies indicate uneven
attention to cultural factors (Harper et al., 1978; Druckman et al., 1982). The
reported studies on kinesics (body language) have been largely descriptive,
consisting of naturalistic observations and informal commentary (e.g., Argyle,
1975). One study of cultural differences in gazing behavior is probably the most
extensive to date on that topic (Watson, 1970): Arabs, Latins, and Southern
Europeans focused their gaze on the eyes of their partner, while Asians, Indian-
Pakistanis, and Northern Europeans showed peripheral gaze or no gaze at all.
Several cross-cultural studies on proxemics (the use of space) support Hall's
(1966) observation that behaviors related to space are quite sensitive to cultural
variation: for example, Watson and Graves (1966) found expected

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 162

differences between Arabs and Americans in their space behavior and body
orientations (see also Sommer, 1959; Little, 1968; Shuter, 1976; Baxter, 1970). In
addition, studies have shown cultural differences in touching behavior (Watson
and Graves, 1966; Jourard, 1966; Shuter, 1976).
The issue of universal nonverbal expressions versus culturally determined
expressions has been probed in a series of studies on facial expressions. Defining
the issue in terms of “relative importance,” Ekman developed an approach that
allows for both universal and culturally specific sources for expressions of
emotion (see, e.g., Ekman and O'Sullivan, 1988). According to this “theory,”
eliciting events vary from culture to culture but the particular facial muscle
movements triggered when a given emotion is elicited are universal. (Blends of
emotions may be subject to more cultural variability than the primary emotions.)
That is, although the underlying physiology for the primary emotions may be
universal, the actual expression elicited is subject to cultural and situation-
determined display rules. Display rules serve to control an expression or to
modify or mask certain expressions that would be socially inappropriate or would
reveal deception. Evidence relevant to this theory is presented in a series of
experiments reported by Ekman and his colleagues.
One series of experiments explored the extent to which respondents from
different cultures agreed on the facial configuration signifying contempt as
opposed to anger or disgust (Ekman and Friesen, 1986; Ekman and Heider,
1988). They found that the expression is widely recognized as contempt (75
percent agreement across cultures) just as the “anger expression” was seen as
signifying anger (74 percent agreement) and the “disgust picture” showed disgust
(73 percent agreement). Less clear, however, is the explanation for such
universality: agreement could be the result of either species-specific learning or
biological evolution. If the result of learning, the expressions would be
characteristic only of humans; if the result of evolution, they should also be
observed in other species, such as primates. A resolution of this issue depends on
demonstrations of cross-species similarities in the underlying physiology. Such a
demonstration has not yet been presented.
In a particularly ambitious cross-cultural study (Ekman et al., 1987),
respondents from ten cultures were asked to identify facial expressions as
indicators of one or more of six emotions—happiness, surprise, sadness, fear,
disgust, anger. Three pictures were selected for each of the six emotions. High
levels of agreement were found for judgments of the strongest emotion, the
second strongest emotion, and the relative strength of two different expressions
of the same emotion in each set of pictures. The majority of the observers in
every culture judge the emotions as

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 163

predicted. The authors claim that these results are strong support for the view of
universal facial expressions (although not for the species-specific learning versus
evolutionary explanations of such agreement). However, several aspects of their
research design may have biased the results in favor of high agreement: their
procedures serve to take the expressions out of a social context, eliminate
simultaneous speech and body cues, freeze the expression in a photograph, force
special attention to it, and ask for judgments from detached uninvolved
observers. Further studies are needed to observe how facial expressions change in
different social contexts. Following Doob's (1975) advice, these studies should
embed the expression in textual material in order to capture the content as well as
the tone of the emotion. Of interest, then, is the question: Would similar levels of
agreement be obtained for expressions viewed as part of a cultural context?
The issue of universality versus cultural specificity has not been addressed
systematically in relation to other nonverbal channels. However, there is
indication of considerable variation in the display of emblems—physical acts that
can fully take the place of words. Ekman et al. (1984) report regional, national,
and intranational (urban versus rural) variation among respondents in their survey
of emblems and indicate that a geographical dictionary of emblems would be a
useful compilation for researchers as well as travelers. Such work would raise a
question of interest: Does the source of emblems differ from facial expressions
with regard to the issue of universality versus cultural specificity?
Finally, in terms of the central theme of this chapter, we located only two
teams of investigators who have been recently exploring cultural influences on
deceptive enactments. Comparing Chinese experimental liars with truth tellers,
Cody et al. (1989) report some similarities and some differences to findings
reported in earlier studies with American subjects (see also Yi Chao, 1987). Like
their American counterparts, Chinese liars found lying to be a more difficult
challenge than telling the truth: they experienced difficulties in communicating
detailed and thorough answers to the questions that required effort. (See DePaulo
et al., 1985, for a review of the research with American subjects.) Overall,
however, few nonverbal behavioral cues distinguished the Chinese liars from
truth tellers: no differences were found in either arousal or visual cues, although
some discrimination was found in the auditory channel. These findings may be
explained in part by culturally learned constraints against the display of negative
feelings. Both the liars and truth tellers were brief in communicating negative
feelings; they smiled frequently and suppressed body and hand movements.
While speech errors were related to deceit, many other paralinguistic variables
related more strongly to question difficulty.

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 164

The researchers suggest that future cross-cultural research assess the more
subtle cues to arousal and anxiety that are more sensitive to cultural influences,
such as types of smiling, symmetry of expressions, and tone of voice. Another
study shows that vocal stress may be a sensitive indicator of emotions associated
with deception, at least for the male Chinese subjects in their sample (O'Hair et
al., 1989). One implication of these findings is that different display rules operate
in different societies, resulting in culturally specific expressions, some of which
are manifest as deception cues. The mode of expression of nonverbal behaviors in
various channels differs even if the same type of behavior is displayed. When
stated as an hypothesis, this issue provides a basis for further research that would
elucidate the cultural dimensions of deception clues.
Bond and his colleagues (1990) videotaped Americans and Jordanians while
telling lies and truths about persons they liked or disliked. Similarities and
differences in nonverbal displays between the cultures indicate some support for
both culturally specific expressions and for universal expressions. They found
similarities between the cultures on such nonverbal behaviors as smiling, head
movements, blinking, and hand gestures. Differences were found on eye contact,
movements per minute, and filled pauses: Jordanians displayed more of each of
these behaviors. However, only one behavior, filled pauses, distinguished
between the liars and truth tellers among the Jordanian subjects only: Jordanians
displayed more filled pauses when lying than when telling the truth. It is little
wonder then that the detectors from both cultures were inaccurate: very few
nonverbal behaviors could be used as reliable cues to deception.

CONCLUSIONS
Three kinds of conclusions are suggested by this review of research related
to deception. The evidence underscores the relevance of nonverbal behaviors as
indicators of emotions and intentions, although it raises additional issues that can
only be resolved by further research. It also suggests some strategies that can be
used to detect intentions in real-world environments.
It is clear that a number of nonverbal behaviors are associated with
deception. Particularly revealing are body movements and tone of voice changes,
although a number of other behaviors also indicate deception in certain
situations. Nonverbal behaviors reflect feelings or emotions more directly than
specific intentions to deceive. Emotions—psychological states—can be
considered as intervening variables, relating to observed behaviors and to inferred
intentions. Nonverbal expressions

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 165

are influenced by culture and context, but some components of emotional

expression may be universal and independent of cultural overlays.
Motivated liars are easier to detect than nonmotivated liars. When
emotionality is high, as in the case of tasks with high stakes associated with
outcomes, nonverbal behaviors can be especially revealing. The revealing
behaviors are likely to be those in a liar's unattended channels, which are leaked
as a result of behavioral inhibition or rigidity.
Detectors, both amateurs and experts, are generally inaccurate despite high
levels of confidence in their judgments. Neither feedback nor enhanced
suspiciousness seems to improve their accuracy, but training them and providing
them with a plan for processing information can increase accuracy of detection.
The increased accuracy is more likely to occur if the discriminating cues to
deception are known, and processing strategies aid the process of weighing and
combining cues for judgments. In the absence of known relevant cues, whether to
rely on possible universal or situation-specific cues remains an unresolved
research issue.
Many questions are raised by the tantalizing information on deception and
nonverbal behaviors. What nonverbal behaviors are associated with forms of
deception that are not considered to be direct lies? What are the specific
connections between nonverbal behaviors, emotions, and intentions as these
occur in different situations? What are the implications of conscious control of
facial expressions or body movements? There is a need to develop a framework
that enables an analyst to match behaviors to situations in order to specify more
precisely the contextual basis for behavior. What are the effects of varying types
of lies and types of liars on the accuracy of detection? What are the dimensions
of detection accuracy? There is a need to develop analytical strategies that aid the
task of inferring intentions from behavior when the discriminating cues are not
known. Cross-cultural studies of nonverbal behaviors associated with deception
are needed. Little is known about the culturally specific display rules for every
channel of communication, not only those manifest in facial expressions. On this
topic, the gap between scientific evidence and anecdotal reporting is especially
large. Researchers could take advantage of the large number of foreign students
currently attending United States universities as a source for cross-cultural
comparisons.
In spite of the number and breadth of unanswered questions, laboratory
research does suggest particular aspects of behavior that may reveal intentions,
for example, relationships between incongruities in verbal and nonverbal
behaviors and stress, deviations from baseline observations of tone-of-voice as an
indicator of possible deception, and an increased overall intensity of behaviors
for extent of commitment to policies.

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 166

Techniques developed for laboratory research may also be useful. They provide a
structured and systematic approach to analysis for detecting deception in a variety
of situations. The techniques are especially useful to an analyst who has access to
videotaped interactions or who can interact with a subject over long periods of
time. It is important not to rely solely on the judgments of “experts” even if they
claim to be highly confident in those judgments. Expert-based judgments should
be verified with other data gathered and processed in a systematic manner.
It should be possible to learn to distinguish between the universal and
culturally specific expressions of emotions. The primary emotions may evoke
similar expressions from one culture to another, and combinations of emotions
seem to be subject to display rules, with which detectors can become familiar.
Leakage cues are likely to be evident in a highly motivated liar. A
professional may be more likely to show signs of deception in unattended
channels than an experimental subject, who operates in an environment in which
the stakes for getting caught are relatively low.

NOTES

1. Comprehensive reviews of this evidence can be found in a number of sources. Harper et al. (1978)
provide an ambitious summary of the literature organized by channel of communication, that is,
paralanguage, facial expression, kinesics or body language, visual behavior, and proxemics or the
study of space. An edited volume by Siegman and Feldstein (1978) reviews the evidence on
specialized topics by the key researchers in those fields, for example, Dittmann on the role of bodily
communication, Ekman on facial expression, Exline on visual interaction, Hess on pupillary
behavior, and Patterson on the role of space. Druckman et al. (1982) present a channel-by-channel
review of studies organized in terms of the functions of information processing and impression
management; the same authors provided a more recent review appearing in Hargie's (1986) Handbook
of Communication Skills. Influential frameworks for conceptualizing the diverse functions served by
nonverbal behavior are those devised by Ekman and Friesen (1969), Birdwhistle (1970), Dittmann
(1972), Mehrabian (1972), and Argyle (1975). To keep abreast of current developments in the field,
readers can consult recent issues of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.
2. Results obtained from a preliminary analysis are instructive. Subjects participated in a main
interview and a postinterview session; in the later, they were told to “fool the interviewer by
controlling their facial expressions.” In both segments, the same issue was discussed. Fifteen
nonverbal behaviors (facial expressions and body movements) were coded for both the main interview
and the postinterview sessions. Contrary to the leakage hypothesis, the difference scores indicated
less movement on most indicators in the postinterview session. Following the experimenter's
instructions, subjects spent considerably more time looking at the interviewer and less time looking
elsewhere during the postinterview session. They also showed less activity on other indicators, the
only exceptions being head movements and frowns, where they showed somewhat more movement
during the postinterview session. Although this finding contradicts the idea of leakage, it does
suggest a deception clue for deceivers who consciously control their facial expressions. The clue is
less overall animation, which has also

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HIDING AND DETECTING DECEPTION 167

been found to discriminate among deceivers, evaders, and truth tellers (Druckman et al., 1982:137)
and to distinguish between deceivers sensitive to detector's possible suspicions about their deception
and those not sensitive to suspicions in the Buller et al. (1989) study. It also replicates the DePaulo et
al. (1985) finding of behavioral inhibition for motivated liars discussed above. More definitive results
await the analyses of data which have been obtained from a larger sample of subjects, some of whom
were told to “control their face,” while others were told to “control their body.”
3. Another problem for detectors is posed by skillful deceivers. Skill at deceiving may be developed
through on-the-job experience or by specific training programs. Studies by Ekman and Friesen (1974)
and Alker (1976) suggest that experience in a profession (nursing, politics) may enhance a person's
skill at deceiving. DePaulo et al. (1985) discuss training with regard to both effective and ineffective
procedures. Appropriate training for would-be deceivers may be games where feedback is direct,
unambiguous, and immediate. Inappropriate preparation may be repeated rehearsals of the future
enactment. Careful planning may make a person appear less spontaneous and more tense, leading the
observer to conclude that he or she is being deceptive. These suggestions apply more generally to the
art of impression management, including those forms of impressions that are less morally dubious
than deception.
4. The laboratory research addresses the question of what to look for and how to measure it. While
contributing analytical strategies as discussed in this section, it would be facile to suggest that the
findings from laboratory studies also contribute to the meaning of displays observed in other settings.
The meaning of measured displays must be established in the setting of interest.

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 171

10
A Broader Concept of Deception

Although laboratory studies of lying have produced interesting results,

critics can point to many features that might limit their generality to “real world”
deception. The lying is done by individuals who are not experienced at
deception. Because the lying is done at the request of the experimenter, it may
differ qualitatively from unsanctioned lying in social contexts. Laboratory lying
does not, in itself, benefit the liar, nor does it do obvious harm to the target of the
lie.
This chapter considers deception in a broader context. We begin with a
review of attempts to provide a framework for understanding deception and
lying. Some of those attempts were aimed at constructing theories of deception;
others were aimed at understanding how ordinary individuals conceptualize
deception. We focus on these latter approaches to determine whether, in
principle, it is possible to detect if a given individual is being truthful or is trying
to deceive. We then suggest additional research paradigms to supplement the
standard one. The goal of this new paradigm is to understand how different
cultural and subcultural groups represent deception and its moral implications. As
discussed in Chapter 9, an individual can be expected to “leak” deception cues
when he or she has violated a cultural norm; thus, it is important to know what
the cultural norms are and what constitutes a violation for that individual.
Morality is a concern because of its impact on leakage. In most situations, a
person has to rely on verbal and nonverbal cues to judge if someone is lying or
trying to deceive in other ways. As discussed in Chapter 9, these cues, in turn, are
assumed to reflect an internal psychological

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 172

state. Presumably, internal states that correspond to guilt can produce

physiological and motor responses that may reveal the guilty state to a discerning
detector. At least this is the basic premise that underlies the attempts to discover
cues to deception.

TYPES OF DECEPTION
Lying in the real world covers more than lying studied in the laboratory:
lying is often done for personal or ideological gain; it can harm the victim, and it
is often carried out over a considerable span of time. More broadly, deception
includes more than lying. In fact, deception can be carried out without explicit
lying.
Deception can be defined broadly as the manipulation of appearances such
that they convey a false reality. However, when one tries to list a variety of
deceptions and their contexts, it becomes difficult to find a common set of
features that characterizes all of them. At best, the various types of deception
bear what Wittgenstein (1953) calls a family resemblance to one another.
Deception includes both dissimulation (hiding or withholding information) and
simulation (putting out wrong or misleading information). Both deception and
lying can be accomplished by omission as well as by commission. Interestingly,
folk theories of deception are more likely to attach moral significance to
deceptions accomplished by commission than to those accomplished by
omission.
The first psychologists to study deception looked upon conjuring or sleight-
of-hand magic as the paradigm (Hyman, 1989). Certainly, conjuring is one of the
few occupations in which success depends entirely on the ability to deceive.
Although deception is the essence of conjuring, such deception differs from the
deception of the confidence man or that of the spy. A conjuror engages in
“sanctioned deception”: he or she has an implicit contract with the audience that
doing a good job means fooling the onlookers. A magician would not be a good
magician if he or she failed to deceive the audience. A conjuror's “victims”
know, even before the tricks have been done, that the magician intends to fool
them.
Deception, unlike conjuring, generally depends for its success on keeping
intended victims unaware that deception is taking place. And many deceptions,
unlike magic tricks, are definitely not sanctioned by society. Although most lying
and deceiving are considered immoral by almost all cultures, some forms are
sanctioned, or at least tolerated, by social customs. In the United States, such
tolerated untruths include “social lies” and “white lies.” Jokes, fantasies, teasing,
and fibbing are other examples of untruths that carry little or no social
disapproval. These considerations suggest that one way deceptions vary is in the
perceived harm that they can do to other people or society.

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 173

There are many examples of the varied types and contexts of deception.
Many adolescent children have successfully “fooled” adults; some have gained
notoriety as psychics or individuals around whom poltergeist phenomena occur.
Both children and adults have succeeded in fooling doctors into giving them
unneeded prescriptions and even unnecessary operations. Consumer and health
fraud has always been a huge industry in civilized countries. Military and
strategic deception have been practiced since countries or even tribes have
existed. Feints and ploys are highly valued and important forms of deception in
games and sports. Fraudulent psychics, gambling cheats, and impersonators are
everywhere. Confidence games and swindles continually take their toll of
seemingly willing victims. Forgery is a criminal case of deception. In recent
years, more and more articles and books have been devoted to plagiarism and
other deception in science (e.g., National Academy of Sciences, 1989). Self-
deception has also recently been gaining much attention among philosophers,
psychologists, and sociobiologists.
All these forms of deception are interesting and worthy of study, but the
focus of this chapter is more limited: two individuals in face-to-face
communication. Under these circumstances, the questions of hiding and detecting
deception are about leakage and the extent to which one of the parties can detect
whether the other is talking or acting deceptively. One focus is how to generalize
the existing findings from laboratory research to more realistic settings and to
wider contexts of deception.
Although the focus is on two individuals in face-to-face communication, it is
important to remember that most important informational exchanges occur within
a more complicated organizational setting in which structural and psychological
factors interact and help to determine, in important ways, the consequences of the
exchanges. These added complexities are briefly addressed.

THEORIES, TAXONOMIES, AND FRAMEWORKS

During the late 1800s and early 1900s several psychologists tried to develop a
psychology of deception, using conjuring as the paradigm case for deception
(Hyman, 1989). By discovering and classifying the principles that conjurors use
to mystify audiences, the psychologists hoped to provide a general framework for
understanding all deception. But, for the reasons noted above, conjuring is
probably not the best paradigm for deceiving.
A few writers have tried to develop taxonomies as frameworks for a theory
of deception: a good taxonomy helps focus on which studies are most likely to
contribute to the development of an adequate theory. At first, any taxonomy has
to be considered highly tentative; it is likely that

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as research is surveyed, some categories will be found to include no

representatives and many studies will be difficult to fit into any category. More
broadly, a good taxonomy cannot be evaluated in general terms because its
usefulness depends on the purposes of its users.
Some theorists on deception have developed preliminary taxonomies that
can be used as a basis for developing more comprehensive systems for future
investigations. A major objective of the existing taxonomies is to develop a
scientific theory of deception. Such a theory would consist of basic concepts,
variables, and laws that would enable people to understand and explain
deception. Just as the current theories of physics, chemistry, and biology deviate
greatly from earlier intuitive notions about how the world “works,” we can
expect that a scientific theory of deception will probably have little in common
with common sense ideas of deception.
The current attempts to develop a framework for understanding deception, in
fact, do not depart very much from general intuitions about deception. In some
cases this simply reflects the primitive state of theorizing about deception. The
developers of the taxonomies have to begin with the concepts and data that exist
in everyday terminology. Presumably, with more scientific investigation and
further refinements, the taxonomies will begin to deviate more and more from
everyday concepts and terminology.
A few attempts to develop a framework, however, deliberately adopt the
stance of the layperson. Hopper and Bell (1984), for example, base their approach
on what they refer to as “the linguistic turn.” This approach seeks the basis for a
taxonomy within the language usage of ordinary people. Others have as their
focus the deliberate attempt to find out how people conceptualize deception and
lying. Thus, we can identify two motivations for studying the folk psychology of
deception: one is based on the hope that the folk psychology, with suitable
refinements, can be transformed into a scientific psychology of deception; the
other is to study the folk psychology as an end in itself. As will be pointed out,
this latter motivation may have important implications for questions raised in this
chapter.
A brief overview of some frameworks devised for the purpose of developing
a scientific theory of deception is discussed below, followed by a look at
taxonomies deliberately aimed at understanding how ordinary people conceive of
deception.

Frameworks as Scientific Theories

Chisholm and Feehan (1977) provide an analysis of deception from a
logical, philosophical viewpoint. They identify three dimensions for

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distinguishing among deceptions: omission-commission; positive-negative;

intended-unintended. The combination of these dimensions provide eight
different categories of deception.
Daniel and Herbig (1982) define deception as the deliberate
misrepresentation of reality to gain a competitive advantage; thus, they differ from
Chisholm and Feehan in that only intended misrepresentations would count as
deceptions. They add a further restriction in that the misrepresentation has to be
aimed at providing a “competitive advantage” to the deceiver. They divide
deceptions into three categories: cover, lying, and deception. Cover refers to
secret keeping and camouflage. Lying is subdivided into simple lying and lying
with artifice. Lying is more active than cover in that it draws the target away from
the truth. Artifice goes beyond straight lying in that it involves manipulating the
context surrounding the lie. Deception is not the same as lying; lying focuses
more on the actions of the liar, and deception deals with the effects on the
receiver. Daniel and Herbig further classify deceptions as ambiguity-increasing
and ambiguity-decreasing: the former deceives by confusing the target, the latter
misleads by building up the attractiveness of one wrong alternative.
In a different approach, Heuer (1982) builds a taxonomy in terms of the
underlying psychological biases that are assumed to result in deception. He lists
various perceptual and cognitive biases that may help to develop a theory of
deception and counterdeception. Heuer's approach points to the fact that one can
attempt to base a taxonomy on an ordering of the various exemplars of deception
or, instead, on an ordering of psychological and sociological constructs that may
explain deception. Each approach has its merits. The ultimate goal is to develop a
framework that can account for the effectiveness of deception. But one can argue
that it might be wiser to begin the search with a taxonomy that is based on surface
similarities and dissimilarities among exemplars of deception. Possibly, there
might be some value in trying to start with both types of taxonomies.
One attempt to create a theory of deception includes the only taxonomy that
has been put to a test. Whaley (1982) devised a taxonomy on the basis of
systematic analysis of examples from war and conjuring. He also obtained inputs
from diplomats, counterespionage officers, politicians, businessmen, con artists,
charlatans, hoaxers, practical jokers, poker players, gambling cheats, football
quarterbacks, fencers, actors, artists, and mystery story writers. The resulting
framework was tested by classifying an exhaustive list of magic tricks. All
deception for Whaley is a form of misperception. He divides misperceptions into
other induced, self-induced, and illusions. Self-induced misperception is what we
ordinarily refer to as self-deception. Other-induced misperception

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includes misrepresentation (unintentional misleading) and deception proper

(deliberate misrepresentation).
Every deception, according to Whaley, is comprised of two parts:
dissimulation (covert, hiding what is real) and simulation (overt, showing the
false). Both dissimulation and simulation come in three forms: the three types of
dissimulation are masking, repackaging, and dazzling; the three types of
simulation are mimicking, inventing, and decoying. In decreasing order of
effectiveness, these components of deception can be listed as masking,
repackaging, dazzling, mimicking, inventing, and decoying. Nine categories of
deception are obtained by combining the three kinds of dissimulation with the
three kinds of simulation. Whaley claims that these nine types exhaustively
classify all deceptions; he was able to classify every magic trick into one of these
nine categories. Whether other researchers and independent judges can use his
system to reliably classify the same magic tricks, as well as other deceptions, into
these categories remains to be seen.
One schematic framework was developed for understanding deception in
intelligence work (Epstein, 1989). The framework is attributed to the late J.J.
Angleton, who was a senior officer, as well as a controversial person, in the
Central Intelligence Agency. The basic idea is that of a deception circle that
includes, as a minimum, a victim (target person or group), an inside person, and
an outside person. The outside person is typically an enemy agent who pretends
to have become an informant. He is the source of disinformation to the target
group. For the disinformation to be effective, however, the enemy must know how
it is being accepted and interpreted by the target group. The feedback comes to
the enemy from the inside man (usually a “mole” or other enemy agent who has
managed, over a period of years, to penetrate the innermost sanctums of the
target group). With the appropriate feedback, the enemy can tailor and fine-tune
the disinformation so that it is more consistent with what the target group
believes or wants to believe. This deception circle, which also characterizes many
other successful forms of deception, such as confidence games, provides a potent
and almost irresistible way to plant disinformation. Although this model is
relatively simple, it is important in making clear that the dynamics of successful
deception typically involve organizational and social factors that go beyond the
simple dyadic relationship of the informer and the “informed.”

Frameworks Based on Folk Psychology

Philosophers and some psychologists debate the role that folk psychology
—common beliefs—should play in a scientific psychology. One

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position is that folk psychology should play no role since many folk beliefs about
human behavior have been wrong. Trying to build a scientific psychology on the
basis of folk psychology, according to this position, would hamper progress by
starting with vague, contradictory, and almost certainly wrong beliefs. People
who advocate this position argue that the science of psychology should begin
with those concepts and laws that have already been shown to be useful in
biology, physiology, and neuroscience.
The contrary view maintains that any complete science of psychology must
take into account people's beliefs about their own and others' mentality and
behavior. This is the view accepted in this chapter. We believe that any attempt to
understand and explain deception must somehow take account of how ordinary
people conceptualize deception.
One obvious way in which a folk psychology of deception can matter is
related to the leakage hypothesis, which assumes that people enter a particular
psychological state when they believe they are violating a social norm. The
experience or state of guilt is accompanied by hormonal and muscular changes
that can potentially be detected by an observer. Perhaps the best use of this
hypothesis is to predict or detect deception on the basis of beliefs and acts that
constitute deceptions and transgressions for a given individual. What a person
believes about lying and deception is part of that individual's folk psychology.
Two empirical studies have attempted to describe the way ordinary people
conceptualize lying and deception. Although both studies were psychological
investigations, the investigators were communication scientists (Hopper and Bell,
1984) and linguists (Coleman and Kay, 1981). Subsequently, another linguist
carried out a provocative analysis of the Coleman and Kay study (Sweetser,
1987). These studies are important because they show that the paradigm
laboratory experiment might be supplemented by approaches that better elicit
leakage cues from members of various groups.

A Taxonomy in Psychological Space

One taxonomy of deception was devised by looking for systematic
relationships among deception terms used by speakers of English (Hopper and
Bell, 1984). By examining how their subjects classified 46 terms related to
deception, the investigators inferred that folk theories of deception recognize six
types: playings, fictions, lies, crimes, masks, and unlies. This taxonomy organizes
the deception realm in terms of perceived similarities among the various concepts
that refer to deception in some sense. The investigators suggest that their
taxonomy is hierarchical. The six categories can be subsumed under two more
general

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 178

categories, benign fabrications and exploitative fabrications: benign fabrications

include fictions and playings; exploitative fabrications include lies, crimes,
masks, and unlies.
Hopper and Bell add further organization to their taxonomy by looking for
attributes or dimensions along which they can order their categories with respect
to one another. Their statistical analyses identify three such dimensions and hint
at three additional ones. The dimension that accounts for most of the ordering
among the deception terms is evaluation: it contrasts socially acceptable,
harmless, and moral types of deception with socially unacceptable, harmful, and
immoral deceptions. The two other dimensions that account for most of the
ordering among their categories are detectability and premeditation. The three
additional dimensions that may also play a role are directness, verbal-nonverbal,
and prolonged.
The investigators had their subjects—180 undergraduates in an American
university—each sort 46 words into categories that seemed to go together. The 46
words had been selected to represent a larger set of 120 deception terms. The
assumption was that the more subjects who put the same two words in the same
category, the more these two words were psychologically similar. After obtaining
an index of similarity between every pair of words, the authors used
multidimensional scaling to construct a psychological space for these terms.
Hopper and Bell had another group of subjects rate each of the deception
words on ten bipolar adjective scales, such as good-bad, harmless-harmful,
moral-immoral, direct-indirect. In our own analysis, we used these ratings with
factor analytic procedures to generate a psychological space for the 46 terms. The
resulting space was similar to the one that Hopper and Bell found using their
clustering procedure. Our analysis indicated that two psychological dimensions
were sufficient to account for the variations of the terms on the rating scales.
Figure 1 shows 31 of the words plotted in this two-dimensional space. (We have
omitted 15 of the terms from the graph because they overlapped with other terms
and would have made the graph unintelligible.)
For our purposes, it is the principle illustrated by this figure that matters. We
labeled one dimension “harmfulness”: the terms that are high on this dimension
(on the right-hand side) tended to be highly rated on scales such as bad, harmful,
unacceptable, and immoral; the terms that are low on this dimension (on the left-
hand side) were highly rated on the opposite scales, good, harmless, socially
acceptable, and moral. The second dimension is labeled covertness: those items
that are high on this dimension (at the top) were rated high on covert, indirect,
and nonverbal; those at the opposite end of this dimension (at the bottom) were
rated high on overt, direct, and verbal.

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 179

FIGURE 1 Deception terms plotted in a two-dimensional space.

Notice that the concept lie is located at the bottom right-hand corner of the
figure. The subjects agreed in rating lying as harmful, socially unacceptable, and
immoral, as well as being highly verbal and direct. Deception also is high on
harmfulness but is relatively neutral on the covertness dimension. This suggests
that the subjects recognize that some deceptions can be highly verbal, such as
lying, but that they can also be nonverbal. Although fib and whopper are near lie
on the covertness dimension, they are rated as relatively neutral on the
harmfulness scale. A white lie is rated as only somewhat harmless and somewhat
overt.
There are some possible limitations of these data. The variations among the
terms are circumscribed by the limited number and range of

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 180

rating scales used. Some important dimensions in the folk psychology of

deception may have been left out. A more important limitation is that the role of
context is omitted. Disguise is rated as neutral on harmfulness though covert, but a
disguise used for a costume party is quite different from a disguise used to rob a
bank. Perhaps the apparently neutral rating simply reflects that some respondents
rated it as harmful and others rated it as neutral. Similarly, most jokes are
harmless, but certain practical jokes can be quite cruel and harmful.
Despite these limitations, however, Hopper and Bell's data probably capture
some important aspects about how undergraduates in our culture perceive
deception. Presumably, if such subjects were telling a lie as a joke, they would
display less leakage than if they were telling a lie about who wrote their term
paper. We have illustrated this procedure in some detail because we believe that,
with suitable refinements, it can be used to yield psychological spaces for
different subgroups and cultures. We might expect that different groups would
differ on which kinds of deception they placed at the socially acceptable and
socially unacceptable ends of the harmfulness dimension. This could be useful
information, for example, if leakage cues to deception mainly occur when an
individual is deceiving in a way that his or her culture finds socially
unacceptable.

A Prototype Theory
Another way to uncover the psychological space with respect to deception
was illustrated by Coleman and Kay (1981). These authors carried out their
empirical study of the word lie as an assault on the previously dominant checklist
theories of meaning. The checklist view assumes that the meaning of a word
consists of a set of features: any object that contains these features belongs to the
category defined by that word. For example, bachelor refers to any object that is
human, adult, male, unmarried. According to the checklist theory, any person
who possesses all four of these defining features is a bachelor, and a person who
lacks one or more of these features is not a bachelor. The classic theory of
meaning asserts that the possession of these defining features is both necessary
and sufficient for being a bachelor. Such a definition establishes what is called an
equivalence class—every person who satisfies the definition is as much a
bachelor as every other bachelor. Even before this classical theory began to be
challenged in the 1970s, some scholars had pointed to problems with the classical
definition. For example, is the Pope a bachelor? What about a widower?
The alternative view of meaning, which became popular during the 1970s, is
known as the prototype theory. Prototype theories recognize

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the intuitive notion that some members of a category are better exemplars than
others. Much of the early work supporting this theory had been done with colors
(Rosch, 1975). Not all examples of the color red, say, are equal. People in
different cultures agree that some examples are better reds than others.
Additional experimental work dealing with directly perceptible objects such as
plants, animals, utensils, and furniture supported the prototype theory. Coleman
and Kay wanted to show that the prototype phenomenon can also be found in
words referring to less concrete things, such as the speech-act word lie.
They first used standard linguistic analysis to devise a definition of a
“good” (true) lie. A good lie is one for which the speaker (S) asserts some
proposition (P) to addressee (A) such that:
(1) P is false (false in fact);
(2) S believes P to be false (believe false); and
(3) in uttering P, S intends to deceive A (intent to deceive).
In the checklist or classical theory these three properties would be necessary
and sufficient for a statement to be a lie. The prototype theory asserts that a
concept such as lie is a “fuzzy set” in which different members vary in their
degree of goodness or closeness to the prototype. Statements that possess all three
properties would be the best examples of a lie. Statements that possessed only
two of the three defining properties might still be considered lies, but not very
good examples. Statements that had only one of the properties would be
considered even poorer examples of lies. Finally, statements that possessed none
of these three properties would not be considered as lies.
Coleman and Kay (1981) conducted an empirical test of the theory by
constructing brief stories to correspond with each of the eight possible
combinations of possessing or not possessing the property. The story
corresponding to the possession of all three properties was as follows (p. 31):
(1) Moe has eaten the cake Juliet was intending to serve to company. Juliet
asks Moe, “Did you eat the cake?” Moe says, “No.” Did Moe lie?
The story corresponding to the possession of none of three defining
properties was (p. 31):
(2) Dick, John, and H.R. are playing golf. H.R. steps on Dick's ball. When
Dick arrives and sees his ball mashed into the turf, he says, “John, did you
step on my ball?” John replies, “No, H.R. did it.” Did John lie?
As expected, all 67 of Coleman and Kay's American subject's agreed
that (1) was a lie and that (2) was not a lie. What they were interested in
was how these respondents would react to the other stories, which

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 182

possessed either one or two of the defining characteristics. Story (3), for
example, had two defining characteristics: false in fact and intent to
deceive. It lacked the property that S believes P to be false. This story was
as follows (p. 31):
(3) Pigfat believes he has to pass the candy store to get to the pool hall, but he
is wrong about this because the candy store has moved. Pigfat's mother
doesn't approve of pool. As he is going out the door intending to go to the
pool hall, Pigfat's mother asks him where is going. He says, “I am going
by the candy store.” Did Pigfat lie?
Pigfat's statement was considered to be a lie by 58 percent of the judges; 37
percent judged it not to be a lie; and 5 percent could not make a decision.1 In
general, he results supported the prototype model. The more defining properties a
story contained, the more likely it was to be judged a lie. The authors noted some
minor departures from the ordering that their theory would have predicted. In
part, these departures could be attributed to the fact that each story differed in
content. Coleman and Kay also obtained comments from their subjects. In
agreement with their theory, the comments referred to the three prototypical
properties to justify why a statement was judged as a lie. But the subjects also
referred to other properties, such as the reprehensibility of the acts and the
motives of the person making the statement.
The authors discuss their reasons for not including some of these additional
properties in the prototype for lie. They distinguish between prototypical and
typical properties of a concept. Lies, in their view, are prototypically statements
that the speaker believes to be false, intends the hearer to believe, and are, in fact,
false. Lies are also typically reprehensible, but not prototypically so. They
conclude (Coleman and Kay, 1981:38):
Although this is not the only plausible way to do so, we summarize our
observations by saying that reprehensibleness, although characteristic of typical
acts of lying, is not a prototypical property of such acts, and as such does not play a
role in the semantic prototype (or in the meaning) of lie.
This distinction between prototypical and typical properties of a concept is
controversial. We do not take a side in this controversy; we discuss the issue here
because, regardless of whether reprehensibility is a prototypical or typical
property of lying, it may matter for the leakage hypothesis. Only acts that are
reprehensible or otherwise morally unacceptable to a given individual would be
expected to lead to those states that generate nonverbal leakage. To gain an
understanding of how different cultural groups construe various types of lying
and deception, the Coleman and Kay approach should be extended by adding
stories that also vary on such properties as perceived social acceptability,
potential harmfulness, and the like.

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A Linguistic Approach
Sweetser (1987) uses the data from Coleman and Kay's investigation to
provide an alternative interpretation. Like Hopper and Bell, Sweetser wants to
describe the folk theory or conception of lying; unlike Hopper and Bell, her
method is linguistic rather than psychological. Sweetser notes the view of
concepts as fuzzy sets rather than classical equivalence classes, but she argues for a
different account.
She suggests that within folk psychology, the classical view may actually
hold. She claims that the folk definition of lying holds for a prototypical,
simplified model of the world. This prototypical world contains maxims such as:
(1) be helpful; (2) correct information is helpful; (3) speakers only talk about
information they have good reasons to know is correct; (4) listeners can correctly
assume that speakers know what they are talking about. In this prototypical
context, if the speaker's statement is false, then it is clearly a lie.
When subjects are not completely sure whether a speaker is lying, Sweetser
argues that this is not because the specific act differs from the prototypical lie,
but rather the act occurs in a context that differs from the prototypical one. A joke
is a false statement deliberately uttered by the speaker. It is not clearly a lie,
according to Sweetser, because the context in which the joke is made differs from
the prototypical one. In the prototypical context for defining a lie, conveying true
information is paramount. But in the context of a joke, playing is paramount, and
conveying true information is irrelevant. Subjects are unsure about whether a joke
is a lie because they are not sure that a lie can occur in a context in which the
truth is irrelevant.
Sweetser's analysis of lying highlights the need to keep context in mind
when devising a taxonomy of deception. Indeed, we believe that an adequate
taxonomy of deception will include a taxonomy of the contexts in which each
kind of deceptive act can occur.
Sweetser's analysis points to a further issue that may be important for a good
taxonomy. She states that a speaker feels less immoral if he or she manages to
deceive the target without directly lying. She suggests that deceivers feel less
guilt about deceiving by implication rather than by deceiving by an explicitly
false claim. (In contrast, she also suggests that a victim feels more resentment by
having been deceived by implication than by a direct lie.) If Sweetser is correct,
then it could be hypothesized that a deceiver is less likely to leak deceptive
signals when engaging in indirect deception than in direct deception.
Implications for this hypothesis are derived from the Druckman et al. (1982)
experiments reviewed above. These investigators found both similarities and
differences in displayed nonverbal behaviors between

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 184

subjects in an evasion (indirect deception) condition and those in a direct

deception condition. Discriminant-analysis results showed that the evaders were
more similar to deceivers than to honest subjects in overall displays. However,
the evaders could be distinguished from deceivers in terms of particular
nonverbal behaviors displayed during certain time periods and as deviations from
baseline data: for example, deceivers made more speech errors (calculated as a
deviation from a baseline period) than evaders. These findings suggest that
evaders are not less likely to leak deceptive signals; rather, different cues may be
leaked by indirect (evaders) and direct deceivers.
The cross-cultural question is intriguing. Several interesting suggestions are
made in the anthropological, linguistic, and other related literatures. A first
reading of the literatures provides a pessimistic answer to the possibility of
finding universal indicators of deception. Some cultures seem to have notions of
what constitutes lying and deception that differ markedly from American
folklore. Even more disquieting is the claim that in some cultures lying and
deceiving, in several contexts, are not only socially acceptable, but actually
considered exemplary behavior when the fabrications succeed.
The reason these first impressions of cross-cultural differences are
disheartening is because of the assumption that a deceiver will only leak his or
her intentions when knowingly deceiving and violating a social taboo. Thus, one
faces the task of finding out what is considered a socially unacceptable
fabrication within various cultural groups. Once such contexts have been
discovered, then interrogations could be arranged so as to put informants, for
example, in a situation in which they would be violating a cultural taboo if they
lied when presenting information to interrogators. Our reading of the literature
indicates that if a socially unacceptable deception for a given informant has been
identified, then circumstances can be created that will lead to leakage if the
informant is willfully lying.

Socialization
Our focus has been on a folk psychology of deception because it seems to
offer the best way to achieve a general theory of deception. The leakage
hypothesis assumes that a given individual will display potentially detectable
signs when he or she is in a certain psychological state. As we have noted, a key
issue is the extent to which these diagnostic cues are universal—that is, to what
extent they show the same pattern across cultures and situations—and the
evidence to date suggests the possibility that there may be both universal and
culturally specific aspects to leakage displays.

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Presumably, the underlying psychological state that gives rise to leakage

corresponds to what is ordinarily labeled guilt, shame, humiliation, disgrace, or
dishonor—terms that refer to how people feel when they violate a social taboo.
Everyone is raised within family and cultural settings that teach which acts are
socially unacceptable. This socialization process is considered to impart a
relatively permanent tendency to experience guilt or a similar state whenever a
person commits, or even considers committing, social transgressions. Such
tendencies may persevere even when an individual, as an adult, consciously
rejects many of the values within which he or she was raised.
One assumption, then, is that for all cultures people will react with a guilty
state when they believe they are violating a cultural norm. Knowing the folk
psychology for various cultures becomes important if one wants to know what
constitutes a cultural taboo for a given individual. That is why the techniques
used by Hopper and Bell and by Coleman and Kay have been discussed in some
detail. By properly refining and adapting their methods, information can be
gathered on how individuals from various cultures and subcultures conceive of
deception and lying. This information, in turn, might lead to determining what
sorts of stories or actions constitute socially unacceptable behaviors. Such
findings could then be used to create appropriate stimuli that may elicit leakage if
the individual is, in fact, trying to deceive.
This model assumes people have been socialized. What about individuals
who have not been socialized? In the past, psychologists and psychiatrists
diagnosed some individuals as psychopaths or sociopaths. Whether such
diagnostic categories are still useful or appropriate is debatable; the current
tendency is to use the term “antisocial personality.” Folklore and clinical
observation suggest that antisocial people are able to lie and deceive successfully
because they have undeveloped social consciences and no feelings of guilt. A few
experiments have been carried out with such persons using the polygraph; all of
them are controversial and the results are contradictory.2 Whether antisocial
people turn out to be better or worse than normal people at hiding and detecting
deception, the practical consequences are not clear. It is doubtful, for example,
that an intelligence agent would want to trust a person so diagnosed, even if such a
person could successfully deceive the enemy.

INTERACTIVE SETTINGS
The discussion in this chapter (and in Chapter 9) deals with the simplest
situation in which deception occurs, a face-to-face confrontation between two
individuals, in part because this situation has been the context of most of the
research. Another reason is that such a situation

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 186

provides a starting point for considering extensions to more complicated and

realistic interactions.
The typical dyadic situation is one in which the two individuals interact and
each adapts his or her behavior in the light of what the other person says and
does. In contrast, all the research on the leakage hypothesis has been conducted
within a relatively static, noninteractive mode. Typically, the detector makes
judgments in response to a videotaped presentation. The detector cannot continue
and ask further questions, nor can the deceiver adjust his or her behavior on the
basis of feedback from the detector. But this is just the context in which ordinary
dyadic communication occurs.
It is possible that a detector can do better than the dismal performances so
far reported if he or she is allowed to actually interact with the sender. However,
the sender might actually do even better at hiding deception in an interactive
mode, because the deceiver can use feedback from the victim to adjust both the
content and mode of presentation so as to be more acceptable to the victim.

The Expression Game

Goffman's (1969) concept of an “expression game” depicts the dynamics of
interaction between a detector and a sender. Accurate reading of expressions is
made difficult by the paradox that “the best evidence for (the detector) is also the
best evidence for the sender to tamper with” (Goffman, 1969:63). The detector's
challenge is to determine the significance of a cue when he or she knows that the
sender is managing his or her expressions. The detector must anticipate what the
subject expects him or her to look for and then focus attention on other cues. The
sender is challenged by the need to fool the detector when he or she knows that
the detector is assessing his or her moves. The sender must anticipate the cues
likely to be used by the observer and then control them. As Goffman (1969:58)
notes: “uncovering moves must eventually be countered by counter-uncovering
moves.” Both the detector and sender are vulnerable. The objective for each is to
minimize his or her vulnerability under difficult circumstances. This assessment
dilemma renders the expression game a highly sophisticated art form.
The dynamics of the expression game pose an analytical problem. Both
senders (encoders) and receivers (decoders) determine the outcome of the
communication process. The problem is one of disentangling effects of senders
and receivers. Accurate detection may be the result of encoding skill, decoding
skill, or both. Consequently, an analyst does not know whether detection is due to
style of presentation or astute observation. One solution is to control part of the
interaction, either the

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 187

sender's enactments or the observer's clues, as is done in most laboratory

experiments. By so doing, however, one may lose the essential features of an
interactive situation. This problem illustrates the difficulties in making the
transition between laboratory and field settings.

The World of Intelligence Agencies

Theories of deception, such as those outlined in Epstein (1989), often
assume deception works best when it can be tailored to the expectations and
desires of the victim. Intelligence agencies attempt to do this tailoring by using
feedback about which parts of the disinformation are being accepted and which
parts are being rejected by the victim. One source of such feedback is provided by
information gained in face-to-face communication between informant and
interrogator. In the world of spying, however, the most effective form of feedback
comes from an inside person (or mole) who has penetrated the target agency. The
deception loop includes several layers of an organization. The disinformation
(lying) from a presumed informer makes its way from the controlling agent up
through the various layers of the bureaucracy. The inside person sees how this
information is being accepted and interpreted and informs the enemy agency. The
enemy agency, in turn, adjusts the disinformation being provided by the
informant to better fit with the expectations and desires of the enemy.
As this example illustrates, deception can and often does involve several
levels of organizational complexity. A complete understanding of how deception
operates in most real-world situations often requires considerations at several
levels of analysis such as the international scene, the relation between states,
governmental structures, internal special interest groups, and the like (Handel,
1976; Mauer et al., 1985). Much of this complexity deals with how information is
accepted and used or not. This, in turn, relates to the problem of detecting
deception because it is possible that even when cues to deception should be
obvious to an interrogator, the disinformation being provided may so fit in with
preconceptions and desires of superiors that the interrogator subconsciously
ignores all the signs to the contrary.
As many have pointed out, an interrogator (case officer) who controls an
informant has much of his esteem and pride invested in this informant. A
symbiotic relationship exists between a case officer and an informant. The
informant requires the trust of the case officer so that the information being
provided will be accepted. The case officer needs to believe that the informant is
trustworthy because his or her reputation depends on controlling this important
source of information. In fact, even when an informant is a plant, he or she will
make sure to provide

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 188

enough true information, along with disinformation, to ensure that the case
officer is rewarded and promoted. In this way the case officer becomes even more
dependent on the trustworthiness of the informant.
Once a case officer and his or her superiors have decided that an informant
is trustworthy, the dynamics of the situation are tilted toward maintaining the
belief in the reliability of the informant. Careers can be made, or broken, if the
agency ultimately decides that an informant was a true defector or a plant. A
variety of institutional and psychological factors come into play to maintain the
belief, even in the face of subsequently strong information to the contrary, in the
trustworthiness of the agent. Striking cases of such institutional self-deception
have been documented by Epstein (1989), Handel (1976), Watzlawick (1976),
and Whaley (1973).
Such institutional self-deception typically involves accepting or rejecting the
content of information. At the level of face-to-face communication, we have been
focusing on the nonverbal cues rather than the content of what is being
communicated. The two bases for judging the credibility of information obviously
interact. When the content of the information is consistent with the beliefs and
desires of the receiver, then the tendency to accept the information as accurate is
strong. As noted above, the relationship between suspicion and detection
accuracy—how much a tendency to believe or disbelieve can override the ability
to pick up deception cues—is important for research.

CONCLUSIONS
From the discussion in the chapter we draw four conclusions. The first
conclusion is based on the assumption that leaked cues to deception occur when
an individual's psychological state reflects the experience of guilt. However, the
situations that produce guilt may vary with an individual's cultural background
and experience. Therefore, detection of deception would be improved if one could
anticipate the sorts of settings that constitute social transgression or a guilt-
producing state for particular individuals.
The research on the folk psychology of deception and on the prototypical
structure of lying are examples of methods for assessing perceptions of socially
unacceptable deceptions within subcultural groups. With suitable refinements,
those methods can be used to discover what stories and deceptive acts might
induce leakage for particular individuals.
Once discovered, the stories could be varied systematically to determine
whether leakage occurs (or is enhanced) when an individual deceives under
conditions that violate his or her cultural norms. The analysis would compare the
reactions of various cultural groups to the

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A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 189

same set of stories, with different stories hypothesized to produce nonverbal

leakage for different groups.
Our second conclusion about cultural differences has practical implications.
An interrogator can arrange a situation that will violate a cultural taboo if
deception occurs. One possible way of doing this is to use an interrogator of the
same cultural background as that of the informant. If the folk psychology of the
informant holds that deceiving is immoral only when the victim is a member of
one's own culture, then this setting should produce leakage clues if the informant
is, in fact, lying.
The third conclusion concerns extending and modifying the laboratory
research paradigm as a technique for studying deception clues. In order to
examine complex interactions between individuals operating in organizational
contexts, it would be necessary to supplement classical laboratory experiments
with modern quasi-experimental methods, careful surveys, and detailed case
histories. Moving between experimental and field studies also entails the
development of statistical procedures that enable an investigator to make the
comparisons of interest.
The fourth conclusion is a recommendation for the use of videotapes for
research and training. Ongoing face-to-face interactions pose a problem for
detecting subtle deception clues. Videotaped exchanges between interrogators and
informants can be replayed for details easily overlooked in the course of an
ongoing conversation. Independent observers can analyze the interactions,
providing judgments that may be free from the biases possessed by participants.
Moreover, taped discussions can provide baseline data on cues emitted from a
number of communication channels. Such information can serve as a basis for
evaluating deviations from past behavior. They can also be used to train
individuals to code nonverbal behavior for leakage clues.

NOTES

1. Coleman and Kay obtained confidence ratings along with the judgments of whether a statement
was a lie. They were able to use these ratings to construct a more refined rating scale. For the sake of
simplicity, only the simple judgments of lying are discussed here.
2. Robin-Ann Cogburn, a doctoral student at the University of Oregon, is currently conducting
research with antisocial persons who are in the state prison system. She is using a variation of the
classic laboratory paradigm to test the leakage hypothesis with them.

REFERENCES
Chisholm, R.M., and T.D. Feehan 1977 The intent to deceive. The Journal of Philosophy
74:143-159.
Coleman, L., and P. Kay 1981 Prototype semantics: the English verb lie. Language 57:(1)26-44.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

A BROADER CONCEPT OF DECEPTION 190

Daniel, D.C., and K.L. Herbig 1982 Propositions on military deception. In D.C. Daniel and K.L.
Herbig, eds., Strategic Military Deception. New York: Pergamon Press.
Druckman, D., R.M. Rozelle, and J.C. Baxter 1982 Nonverbal Communication: Survey, Theory, and
Research. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Epstein, E.J. 1989 Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA. New York: Simon
and Schuster.
Goffman, E. 1969 Strategic Interaction. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Handel, M.I. 1976 Perception, Deception, and Surprise: The Case of the Yom Kippur War. Jerusalem
Papers on Peace Problems, No. 19. Jerusalem, Israel: The Hebrew University.
Heuer, R.J. 1982 Cognitive factors in deception and counterdeception. Pp. 31-69 in D.C. Daniel and
K.L. Herbig, eds., Strategic Military Deception. New York: Pergamon Press.
Hopper, R., and R.A. Bell 1984 Broadening the deception construct. Quarterly Journal of Speech
70:288-302.
Hyman, R. 1989 The psychology of deception. Annual Review of Psychology 40:133-154.
Mauer, A.C., M.D. Tunstall, and J.M. Eagle, eds. 1985 Intelligence: Policy and Process. Boulder,
Colo.: Westview Press.
National Academy of Sciences 1989 On Being a Scientist. Committee on the Conduct of Science.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Rosch, E. 1975 Human categorization. Pp. 1-72 in N. Warren, ed., Advances in Cross-Cultural
Psychology. London: Academic Press.
Sweetser, E.E. 1987 The definition of lie: examination of folk models underlying a semantic
prototype. In D. Holland and N. Quinn, eds., Cultural Models in Language and Thought.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Watzlawick, P. 1976 How Real is Real? Confusion—Disinformation—Communication. New York:
Random House.
Whaley, B. 1973 Codeword Barbarossa. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
1982 Toward a general theory of deception. The Journal of Strategic Studies 5:178-192.
Wittgenstein, L. 1953 Philosophical Investigations. New York: Macmillan.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

191

PART IV
Performing

IN THIS PART WE DISCUSS ISSUES concerning ways to optimize the performance

of individuals and teams, particularly by interventions that take place just prior to
or during actual performance. The committee's decision to divide this topic into
two chapters was based on the view that what works for individual performers
may not work for groups. This view is supported by results of numerous studies
on group problem solving: for example, unlike individuals, groups must deal with
coordination problems with respect to the pooling and processing of information
and a division of tasks.
An increasingly popular topic for psychologists is research on performance
in sports. The literature to date has contributed both to the further development of
theories of performance under pressure and to understanding of performance in a
variety of individual and team sports. Continuing the committee's work on effects
of mental practice (Druckman and Swets, 1988:Chapter 5), the discussion in
Chapter 11 summarizes the results of studies conducted since the earlier report
appeared. A number of other practical implications are suggested by the research
summarized in this chapter, which covers preperformance interventions, the use
of preparation rituals, the use of physiological indicators to assist in determining
effective performance, and the use of exercise. The rapid increase of knowledge
in this field suggests a virtually unlimited potential for contributions to
understanding and improving performance under pressure.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

192

Shifting the focus from individual to group performance, Chapter 12

emphasizes the need to invest in long-term research on groups that perform in
operational environments. This topic has received very little attention in the
research and development community. Although the academic research to date
has some implications for improving suboptimal group performance, it is limited
by a failure to capture a number of critical dimensions present in actual group
situations. By elucidating some of these dimensions, the chapter provides a
framework for designing laboratory and field studies that are relevant to the types
of situations found in a variety of military and industrial organizations. There is
much to be learned about the way that groups perform; this chapter provides
guidance on how to proceed.

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 193

11
Optimizing Individual Performance

One of the long-standing concerns of sports psychology has been an

understanding of performance under pressure. Unlike the military, the “pressure”
in a sport is not usually intended to put someone at risk of life and limb. Although
fear of injury may create pressure in some sports, more frequently competitive
pressure is associated with a threat to one's self-esteem.
Since the mid-1970s there has been interest among psychologists to use
sports as a naturalistic laboratory in which to conduct research on performance
under pressure. In this chapter we review the rather expansive sports literature in
four areas: the relationship between the mental health model, mood, and motor
performance; cognitive-behavioral interventions for sport and motor
performance; preperformance routines (i.e., preparation rituals), sports
performance and electrophysiological correlates associated with these routines;
and the effect of exercise on reactivity to psychosocial stressors. In the last
section, we turn to a different area of research, neuroscience, to consider broader
issues of the brain and performance.

THE MENTAL HEALTH MODEL OF SPORTS

PERFORMANCE
A recent mental health model of athletic performance (Morgan, 1985) posits
that success in sports is negatively correlated with psychopathology: that is,
anxious, depressed, hysterical, neurotic, introverted, withdrawn, confused,
fatigued, or schizoid athletes do not perform as well in sports as athletes with
more positive mental health profiles. Scientifically

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 194

speaking, Morgan's model may not seem very provocative, but its common sense
and intuitive appeal has advantages in its gaining acceptance among the public
(see Morgan, 1980).
Morgan maintains that his model has an intermediate level of complexity:
that is, that the model can specify relationships [e.g., y = f(x)]. Morgan implies
that the flow of causality is from psychological states to success in sports, not the
other way around. However, he does not provide evidence for this flow, and it
could be argued that the flow is in the opposite direction: that self-protective
mechanisms may operate for athletes believing that they will not make a team or
place first, which subsequently affects psychological states.
Morgan (1985:71) further maintains that this type of model “also predicts
specific responses will be dependent upon specific stimulus conditions.”
Although the model does not clearly spell out all of the stimulus conditions, its
empirical basis suggests that it may be limited to certain types of sports. With few
exceptions (LeUnes et al., 1986; Morgan, 1981), most of the evidence has come
from sports that emphasize muscular or cardiorespiratory endurance—body
building, cycling, karate, wrestling, speedskating, soccer, rowing, distance
running, and swimming. The model has been applied to other types of
performance tasks. (In considering the use of this model for military settings, it
seems most appropriate for dynamic, large-muscle activities or cardiorespiratory
endurance tasks that involve intense aerobic/anaerobic training over a period of
months.)
The basic model is a between-subjects static model, consisting of predictions
of desirable psychological states for optimal performance. It has also been
extended to a within-subjects dynamic model consisting of monitoring athletes
throughout different stimulus conditions associated with intense training. Morgan
(1985) believes the evolving dynamic model will ultimately prove to be superior
to the static model in understanding changes in athletic performance. We first
present the static model to better understand its features, which are also
incorporated into the dynamic model.

Static Model: The “Iceberg Profile”

Although Morgan's work is admittedly pretheoretical, the measuring
instruments used to test the static model represent existing psychological theory
applied to sports (e.g., Eysenck et al., 1982). Specifically, Morgan's research has
primarily focused on several standard psychological instruments: the State-Trait
Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger et al., 1970); the Profile of Mood States
(POMS) (McNair et al., 1971/ 1981); the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)
(Eysenck and Eysenck,

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 195

1968, which measures extroversion, neuroticism, and conformity; the Somatic

Perception Questionnaire (SPQ) (Landy and Stern, 1971); and the Depression
Adjective Checklist (DACL) (Lubin, 1967). The conformity measure (i.e., lie
scale) of the EPI was used throughout Morgan's research to infer the validity of
subjects' self-report responses. In some studies (Morgan, 1981; Morgan and
Johnson, 1978), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was
used in place of the other instruments.
To test the model, Morgan defined psychopathology as higher scores relative
to college student norms on introversion, neuroticism, trait anxiety, tension,
depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, as well as on the MMPI clinical scales
used to diagnose problems dealing with psychological adjustment. Thus, Morgan
predicted that athletes displaying psychopathology—defined as one standard
deviation above the 50th percentile on the scales—would have lower levels of
performance compared with athletes displaying a more “positive mood profile.”
In a review of seven of his own empirical studies testing the static mental
health model with pre-elite and elite athletes, he found a consistent pattern,
relative to college student norms (McNair et al., 1971/ 1981): higher than average
vigor and extroversion scores (i.e., positive characteristics for performance) and
lower than average scores on the scales indicative of potential psychopathology.
For example, on the POMS inventory, which has become most associated with
tests of Morgan's mental health model (see LeUnes et al., 1988, for an annotated
bibliography), the positive mood profile has become known as the “iceberg
profile.” This term refers to the shape of the curve relative to 1967 college
student norms when raw scores on the six scales are plotted on the POMS profile
sheet; see Figure 2. Since vigor happened to appear on these scoring forms in a
middle position among the other moods and since athletes typically score above
the population average on vigor, the plot looked like an iceberg.1
In all this research, the measured relationship of mental health to
performance has been somewhat indirect. In no case were actual performances
compared with athletes' responses on psychological inventories at the time the
inventories were completed. Instead, they were inferred from final placement in
competitions (e.g., 1st or 2nd) whether they made or did not make a team, or from
expert ratings of elite runners within a 2-year period (Morgan et al., 1987a). In
most studies the time span between athletes' completing the psychological
inventories and the performance outcome was less than a week. In other studies in
which trait measures (e.g., MMPI) were used, this time span was either much
longer (as much as 4 years), or the response set used for the POMS (i.e., “past
week including today”) did not necessarily include the time in

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 196

FIGURE 2 Comparison of profile of mood states of athletes and college

student norms.
which the performances occurred (Morgan et al., 1987a). In spite of the
rather crude performance measures, the findings have been remarkably consistent
in showing that better athletes displayed a more positive mental health profile
than athletes who were slightly worse (Morgan, 1985). The robust pattern
generalized across several muscular and cardiorespiratory endurance-type sports
and several samples of athletes. (Morgan also concluded that the findings were
not likely due to response distortion since scores on the EPI lie scales were not
correlated with any of the psychometric variables or performance.) The accuracy
of the prediction was high but less than perfect. Using an a priori clinical analysis
as the prediction basis, Morgan (1985) concluded that the accuracy of the
prediction was between 70 and 80 percent and always exceeded base-rate or
chance expectancies.2 Although Morgan's model suggests a high degree of
predictive accuracy, he maintains that this level of precision is not acceptable for
selection purposes.
Considering that in Morgan's (1985) early research the mental health model
was capable of making fine-grain differentiations with reasonable accuracy
among high-level performers, an important question is whether the findings have
held up in more contemporary research studies by other investigators. Although
several of the studies cited in the annotated bibliography of LeUnes et al. (1988)
claim to support Morgan's iceberg profile, many of these studies made no
statistical comparisons to

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 197

a control group. Instead, these studies simply plotted the means of a single group
of athletes and contrasted them to the normative sample reported in the POMS
test manual (McNair et al., 1971/1981). The unusually consistent findings relative
to the test norms are likely due to an inappropriate comparison group; the norms
were obtained from participants in psychological tests and students in psychology
courses and “should be considered as very tentative” (McNair et al.,
1971/1981:19). More recent studies of undergraduate college nonathletes (Boyle,
1987; Dyer and Crouch, 1987) demonstrate that the mean scores for tension,
depression, and vigor have decreased over the past 20 years. This instability over
time, which represents from 2-7 points on the various POMS subscales, and the
current controversy surrounding the factor structure of the POMS (Boyle, 1987;
Norcross et al., 1984; Reddon et al., 1985), suggests that the normative sample
reported in the POMS manual is an inappropriate comparison group. Thus,
studies of this type offer no convincing support for the iceberg profile and the
mental health model.
A better test of the replicability of Morgan's findings for the mental health
model are studies that provide comparison groups similar to those reported by
Morgan (1985). We found 14 such studies that compared the POMS scores of two
groups of athletes representing two levels of performance outcome (13 in LeUnes
et al., 1988; Morgan et al., 1987b). Of the 148 total comparisons made with the
six scales, only 27 (18 percent) were statistically significant and 24 (16 percent)
in the predicted direction. The pattern predicted by the mental health model may
have been present in these studies, but the power of the statistical tests may not
have been sufficient to detect differences because of the small number of
subjects. To examine this possibility, the directions of the 148 comparisons were
examined relative to the predictions of the mental health model. As shown in
Table 1, the percentage of supportive versus nonsupportive findings was
calculated for each study. Compared to chance expectations of 50 percent
supportive, these 14 studies yield an unimpressive overall average percentage of
53 percent supportive findings. As a whole, the findings from other investigators,
as well as Morgan's studies (Morgan and Pollock, 1977; Morgan et al., 1987b),
fail to clearly support the predictions of the mental health model.
In the face of these more recent findings, it is highly questionable that the
POMS instrument, which is primarily used to test the mental health model, is
sensitive enough to reliably differentiate among athletes who are already highly
proficient. In addition to small samples and performance measures that have been
indirect and often distally linked in time with psychological measures, the
susceptibility of the POMS to distorting influences may also contribute to the lack
of sensitivity in differentiating among athletes. For instance, Boyle (1987) has
noted that

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 198

social desirability and other response sets, inadequate self-insight, and item
transparency affect POMS scores. Miller and Edgington (1984) have
demonstrated the susceptibility of the POMS to response distortion or “faking
good” when physical education students were led to believe the test results might
influence team selection. The resulting extreme iceberg profile prompts
considerable concern that the strong situational demands of team selection and
placement in athletic competition may produce distorting influences that override
instructions to subjects to answer the POMS as honestly as they can and that may
be unique to the POMS and, thus, not detectable by the conformity scale of the
EPI. Overall in fact, the static model has had limited success in predicting levels
of athletic performance.

Dynamic Model: Measuring Overtraining

A more viable and methodologically sound approach of the mental health
model may be to use measures of mood to monitor athletes across

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 199

different conditions of situationally induced pressure brought about by

manipulating the training stimulus. This section reviews studies examining this
dynamic mental health model.
An interesting extension of the mental health model has been in the area of
overtraining and staleness. Staleness is an undesirable or pathological condition
that, in a sports context, often results when one is not able to fully recover from
the acute fatigue caused by overtraining (Morgan et al., 1987a). (Overtraining
should not be confused with overlearning, in which the physical demands of the
task do not interfere with successful performance.) The most obvious symptoms
of staleness include “physiological and psychomotor retardation, chronic fatigue,
depressed appetite, weight loss, insomnia, decreased libido, muscle soreness and
elevated depression and tension” (Morgan et al., 1987a:110).
In most endurance sports, coaches plan times during the year or season when
they can increase the volume of training by altering the intensity (i.e., time at a
fixed distance) or duration (i.e., constant pace but varied distance). Intensity and
duration of training increases nearly four-fold during several weeks or months
prior to important competitions. Most coaches believe that with the proper
training stimulus, the process of overtraining can lead to enhanced athletic
performance as long as the athlete is allowed sufficient time to recover from the
acute fatigue brought on by the intense training. Often, however, the training
stimulus is not appropriate, and athletes are unable to recuperate fully within
12-24 hours following an intense workout. As the intense training continues,
chronic levels of fatigue develop and performance deteriorates.
The undesirable effects of overtraining are sometimes checked by
monitoring resting heart rate, blood pressure, lactate, creatine kinase, cortisol, or
catecholamine levels. If values on these measures deviate from normal, then the
training stimulus can be cut back in a dose-response manner. Just as these
physiological manifestations of overtraining can be monitored to prevent
staleness, Morgan et al. (1987a) argue that staleness can also be prevented by
systematically monitoring changes in mood. By examining mood states (e.g., with
POMS) during training cycles consisting of light training, intense or overtraining,
and tapering phases, staleness can be diagnosed early and prevented by reducing
the training stimulus until the athlete once again displays a mood profile
conducive to optimal performance (i.e., the iceberg profile). Without
physiological or psychological markers to prevent staleness, the only known
treatment is a dramatic reduction or change in training or, in extreme cases,
complete rest by discontinuance of training.
With the exception of one study conducted with wrestlers,3 most of the
longitudinal studies by Morgan et al. (1987a) have been with collegiate
swimmers. In these studies, varsity swimmers were given the

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 200

POMS scale at 1-month intervals from September (training load at approximately

3,000 yards/day) to the peak training load in January (11,000 yards/day) until just
before the conference championship in February (peak training load was tapered
to 5,000 yards/day). In this research, global mood disturbance was measured with
the response set of “how you have been feeling during the past week including
today.” Global mood disturbance was calculated by summing the negative mood
scales (anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, and tension), subtracting the “vigor”
score from this total, and then adding a constant of 100 to prevent the occurrence
of negative values.
During the 10 years that Morgan and his colleagues monitored mood scores
on approximately 200 female and 200 male competitive swimmers, the greatest
global mood disturbance typically occurred in late January when athletes were
training twice a day to accomplish the peak training load. This increase in global
mood disturbance usually resulted from a statistically significant increase in
fatigue and a significant reduction in vigor. During this time about 5-10 percent
of the swimmers experienced what was considered as staleness: the swimmers'
performances had deteriorated, and they were unable to train at customary levels.
They were referred to counseling psychology and outpatient psychiatric services,
and approximately 80 percent of them “were judged to possess depression of
clinical significance” (Morgan et al., 1987a:108).
Of the eight studies summarized by Morgan et al. (1987a), only one study
controlled for nonathletic stressors—social, economic, and academic—in the life
of college students. Throughout the semester (September through early
December), 44 collegiate swimmers and 86 nonathletic college students
(controls) completed the POMS bimonthly from week 3 to week 13 of the
semester. As shown in Figure 3, the swimmers scored significantly lower than the
controls at the beginning of the semester. However, as the training volume
increased during the ensuing weeks (weeks 5 to 11), the swimmers experienced a
significant global mood change; the controls did not change significantly at any
point throughout the 13-week period. The swimmers had significantly higher
mood disturbance than the controls during weeks 9 through 13. As the swimmers
were not yet into the taper phase, there was no support for the findings of other
studies (see Morgan et al., 1987a) that a return to normal mood levels occurs once
the training stimulus was lowered.
In several of the research reports of the static and dynamic mental health
models, Morgan has argued that psychobiological tests of the models would
provide greater understanding than does a purely psychological approach.
Illustrative of this is a recent psychobiological study (O'Connor et al., 1989)
conducted with 14 female collegiate swimmers and 8 active college females who
served as controls. As in other swimming

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 201

FIGURE 3 Moods of student athletes and nonathletes.

studies, the training volume of the swimmers increased from 2,000 yards/day
in September (baseline) to a peak of 12,000 yards/day in January (overtraining),
followed by a reduction in training to 4,500 yards/ day by February (taper). The
swimmers had more global mood disturbance in comparison with the controls
during overtraining followed by a reduction in global mood disturbance after the
taper period. The salivary cortisol levels of the controls did not change across
time periods, while the swimmers had higher cortisol levels than controls during
the baseline and overtraining periods. The swimmers had cortisol levels similar to
the control subjects during the taper phase.4
In this study the team's coach (who was not given the mood and cortisol
data) classified three swimmers as being stale because they had a performance
decrement of 5-10 percent for 2 weeks or longer. For each of these women, the
period of staleness coincided with the end of the overtraining period. Using a
nonparametric test to examine the 3 stale and 11 normal swimmers, the results
showed that the stale group had significantly higher global mood disturbance and
salivary cortisol levels than the normal group. This finding is merely suggestive
since the stale athletes may also have had more mood disturbance during the
baseline period.
The results of this study (O'Connor et al., 1989) are consistent with other
studies (Morgan et al., 1988) showing a convergence of physiological and
psychometric measures of distress in swimmers during a

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period of increased training. The fact that tension remained elevated following
the taper period may have been due to anxiety associated with an impending
conference championship. The differences in salivary cortisol levels during the
baseline are also problematic. This difference may have been due to limitations
associated with only collecting one cortisol sample for each training phase and
the time frame in relation to training in which these samples were obtained
(O'Connor et al., 1989). Although no subjects in this study possessed negative
affective states of clinical significance (i.e., one standard deviation of the
population average of college females), three subjects had prolonged performance
decrements that resulted in their being diagnosed as stale.
Global mood disturbance has recently been shown to be related to athletes'
running economy (Williams and Krahenbuhl, in press) and mood state following a
rapid 6 percent weight loss (Horswill et al., 1990). For example, it has been noted
for some time that even in elite runners there is considerable day-to-day
variability in ventilation measures, which exercise physiologists use to infer how
economically one runs at a constant workload. Comparing the POMS to daily
ventilation measures showed a surprisingly high association, r = .80. It appears
that these within-subject comparisons of mood state over days or months can
detect when athletes may feel undue pressure in their lives that can slightly (e.g.,
running economy, weight loss) or dramatically (e.g., staleness) affect their
performance. The implications of the dynamic model are far-reaching.

Summary
There are a number of shortcomings in the studies testing the static and
dynamic mental health models. These shortcomings include the use of a single-
group design in several studies, which greatly limits their internal validity; most
of these studies were cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive, or retrospective in
nature. Many of the studies only used comparisons to college norms established
more than 20 years ago, and it is possible that these norms are not stable over
time and are no longer still representative of college students today. Most of the
studies had very small numbers of subjects, which greatly restricted the use of
multivariate statistics for testing the predictions of the model and for determining
the strength of the predicted relationships. The studies were limited in scope to
endurance sports for which the training stimulus was easily quantifiable. Finally,
there is meager physiological validation for the predictions of the mental health
model.
In addition to these shortcomings, another major problem in the series of
studies testing the static model has been in the quantification of

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performance. The performance measure employed represented an outcome, such

as won or lost, made or didn't make the team; but an athlete might have
performed very well relative to his or her past performance (e.g., personal best),
but still failed to win. Yet Morgan would label the performance as unsuccessful.
If, instead, the performance measure was actual swimming times and distances, a
ratio scale of measurement could be developed to detect small group differences
and enable future investigators to determine if athletes having the greatest
performance decrements actually have more global mood disturbance.5
The results of studies using control groups to test the static model have
produced inconsistent results. It may be too much to expect that a self-report
measure of mood can be sensitive enough to reliably discriminate among levels
of athletic proficiency, let alone predict which athletes will make a team or place
first in a given contest. With the use of within-subjects designs with control
groups (Morgan et al., 1987a:Study 7; O'Connor et al., 1989), the studies testing
the dynamic mental health model have had more internal validity and have shown a
greater degree of consistency in supporting the predictions of the model. The
dynamic model also has the distinct advantage of being able to specify the
situational variables (e.g., training intensity) that lead to predictable mood
changes characteristic of what is known as staleness.

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS
Sports psychologists have studied cognitive-behavioral interventions as a
means of facilitating sports performance since the late 1970s. The general
assumption is that cognitive-behavioral interventions can help performers achieve
greater control of their precompetitive arousal states and maintain attentional
focus on the task at hand. The studies reported in this section do not measure
arousal/attentional processes directly; rather, they infer these processes from
performance changes. Improvements in arousal and attention, which can be
achieved by practice in cognitive-behavioral intervention techniques, is believed
to result in higher levels of motor performance. As defined by Greenspan and
Feltz (1989), “interventions” consist of actions, initiated by someone other than
the performer, that focus on psychological skills in an attempt to improve
performance.
For this review, the interventions typically reported in the sports psychology
literature have been put into five categories: (1) relaxation with no attempt to
alter cognitions (e.g., progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training,
biofeedback, and hypnotherapy); (2) imagery (including “mental practice”); (3)
mental preparation strategies (e.g., association-disassociation strategies and goal
setting); (4) skill development

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strategies (e.g., modeling); and (5) cognitive restructuring-coping strategies (i.e.,

when a clear and deliberate attempt is made to alter cognitions) (see Greenspan
and Feltz, 1989; Whelan et al., 1989). Before turning to recent reviews of
cognitive-behavioral interventions in a sports performance context, we consider
the motor performance literature on imagery and mental practice; this material
represents an update on the topic in the committee's first report (Druckman and
Swets, 1988:Chapter 5).

Mental Practice and Motor Performance

Although there are a few studies that show that mental practice can enhance
retention (Annett, 1979), most of the research literature deals with mental practice
and motor performance. According to Richardson (1967:95): “mental practice
refers to the symbolic rehearsal of a physical activity in the absence of any gross
muscular movements.” Meta-analytic reviews show that, across many types of
motor tasks, mental practice groups performed significantly better than control
groups. This is the case whether one examines group differences at the posttest
(effect size = 0.48; Feltz and Landers, 1983) or pretest-posttest change scores
(effect size = 0.47; Feltz et al., 1988). The motor performance studies contained
in these meta-analytic reviews usually have greater internal validity than the
sports studies, but less external validity (see Campbell and Stanley, 1963). The
motor performance studies are more often laboratory studies, in which subjects
have been randomly assigned to treatment conditions. An even more important
difference is that the motor performance tasks are typically novel tasks that
control for the effect of prior experience and also minimize practice of the task
during the intervention period.
Although those meta-analytic and narrative reviews (Richardson, 1967;
Singer, 1972; Weinberg, 1982) have concluded that mental practice is better than
no practice at all, a more interesting question is whether mental practice can be as
good as or better than physical practice. To investigate this question, subjects in
the mental practice, physical practice, and control groups (no practice) receive the
same number of practice trials. In addition, many of the motor performance
studies have included an additional condition of combined practice. In this case,
the ratio of physical to mental practice has been 50:50 so that subjects receive
half the number of trials of the 100 percent physical and half the number of trials
of the 100 percent mental practice groups. Although some reviewers
(Richardson, 1967; Singer, 1972; Weinberg, 1982) have suggested that mental
practice or a combination of mental and physical practice can be as effective or
more effective in improving performance than 100 percent physical practice, the
meta-analytic review by Feltz et

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al. (1988) found otherwise. For pretest-posttest change scores, it showed effect
sizes of 0.79 for physical practice, 0.62 for the 50:50 combined practice, 0.47 for
mental practice, and 0.22 for no practice (control group).
In the committee's first report (Druckman and Swets, 1988:65), the
possibility was raised that a combination of mental and physical practice might
approach or exceed improvement of the 100 percent physical practice group if the
ratio included a majority of physical practice trials, for example, 70:30. With
tasks like pursuit rotor (a spinning disc with a quarter-sized target that a person
tries to track and that records “time on target” [Oxendine, 1969]), standing broad
jump and hand dynamometer (a device used to measure grip strength [Wills,
1966]), combined practice groups (75:25 and 50:50) have not been found to be
significantly different from physical practice groups. However, the results of
these studies are far from conclusive. Not only were these effects not found for
other tasks examined in these studies—soccer kick, modified free-throw, and
hand dynamometer—but these studies also lacked necessary control groups to
clearly interpret the influence of physical and mental practice on motor
performance.
A more complete test of the hypothesis that combinations of physical and
mental practice can affect motor performance as much as physical practice alone
was recently conducted (Hird et al., 1991). This study compared different ratios
of physical to mental practice for performance on a cognitive task (peg board),
which requires perceptual and symbolic task elements, and on a motor task
(pursuit rotor). Subjects (36 males and 36 females) were randomly assigned to
one of six groups: control (practice on a lateral balancing task); physical practice;
mental practice; or one of three combined physical and mental practice groups,
75:25, 50:50, and 25:75. There were seven practice sessions, consisting of four
trials per session for the peg board and eight trials per session for the pursuit
rotor. The results showed that all treatment conditions significantly improved
performance from pre- to posttest, except for the control group for the peg board
task. Consistent with the Feltz and Landers (1983) meta-analysis, effect size
calculations indicate that mental practice was more effective for the peg board
than for the pursuit rotor. Also, effect sizes and significant linear trends for the
posttest scores for both tasks show that as the relative proportion of physical
practice increased, performance was enhanced (see Table 2). These findings
indicate that reducing or replacing physical practice with mental practice would
be counterproductive if performance enhancement was the only consideration.
However, for conditions under which physical practice may be expensive, time
consuming, fatiguing, or injurious, combined mental and physical practice or
mental practice alone is clearly more effective than no practice.

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TABLE 2 Comparative Effects of Physical and Mental Practice

Hird et al. (1991)
Group Peg Board Pursuit Rotor Feltz and Feltz et al.
Landers (1983) (1988)
Physical Practice 2.05 1.52 — 0.79
75:25 Combined 1.54 1.32 — —
50:50 Combined 1.36 1.10 — 0.62
25:75 Combined 1.07 0.95 — —
Mental Practice 1.06 0.50 0.48 0.47
Control (no — — — 0.22
practice)

NOTE: All numbers are effect sizes.

Although physical practice was better than combined mental and physical
practice and mental practice alone in these studies, in real-life settings mental
practice is not always used as a replacement or trade-off for physical practice.
Rather, mental practice is often used as a supplement to physical practice. There
has been a paucity of motor performance research that has examined the
performance effects that occur when varying amounts or types of mental practice
are systematically added to a constant amount of physical practice. This question
has been addressed in sports, when the regular training and competitive schedule
of athletes is supplemented (although not systematically) with cognitive-
behavioral techniques. These field experimental studies are presented in the next
section.

Sports Performance
The generalizability of the motor performance findings has been questioned,
primarily because athletes' participating in real-world sports tasks were not the
central focus of the studies. Recently, the emphasis in sports psychology studies
has been to broaden the scope to include a number of strategies that emphasize
cognitions, thoughts, or mental activities as mediational processes and/or as the
central change mechanisms (Whelan et al., 1989). Collectively these strategies
have been called cognitive-behavioral interventions and include such
“psychological skills” as imagery, relaxation, biofeedback, hypnotherapy,
cognitive restructuring, systematic desensitization, self-monitoring,
performance-contingent rewards, and goal-setting. At the same time, reviewers
have narrowed their focus to the sports context. Thus, they selected for their
reviews only those studies that used athletes who competed on a regular and

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organized basis, and in which performance (the dependent variable) was

measured in a noncontrived competitive situation in the sport in which the
athletes regularly competed. 6 The overall results of these reviews provides strong
support for a relationship between cognitive-behavioral interventions and an
enhancement of sports performance. For instance, Whelan et al. (1989) found
that the average effect size (0.62) represented more than one-half a standard
deviation advantage in the performances of the athletes receiving cognitive-
behavioral interventions compared with control groups who were denied this
supplemental mental training. Likewise, Greenspan and Feltz (1989) observed the
same facilitation of sports performance in 87 percent of the studies in their
review.7
The effects of cognitive-behavioral techniques were robust with respect to
four factors (Whalen et al., 1989): type of control group used (no treatment,
attentional, placebo, etc.); team or individual sport; open or closed skills; 8 and
performance measured in competition or practice conditions. Effect sizes were
higher (0.62) in studies using appropriate motivational control groups to infer
causality. In addition, in the studies of athletes' performing in conditions of
competitive pressure (competing directly with others), training in cognitive-
behavioral techniques significantly enhanced performance (effect size of 0.31, p
< .05); this effect size, however, was less than half of what it was when no
competition was present (0.75, p < .01). The type of outcome measure was also
an important moderating variable. Studies that used objectively determined
performance, physiological, or self-report measures all showed significant effect
sizes (> 0.49, p < .05). In contrast, when the outcome measure was based on the
ratings of judges or trained observers, the effect size was not statistically
significant (0.29, p > .05).
The type of skill and the skill level of the performer were also rated by
Whelan et al. (1989). Significant effect sizes were found for tasks primarily
involving accuracy, endurance, and strength; significant effect sizes were not
found for tasks that emphasized balance or speed. In terms of skill level, the
effect sizes were significant for both novice and proficient performers. However,
with so few intervention studies being conducted with elite athletes (usually
defined as national team, Olympic, or professional level), no meta-analytic
information on the effectiveness of interventions could be provided for this level
of competitor.
The issue of whether cognitive-behavioral interventions actually work with
elite level athletes was the topic of discussion on the 1988 pre-Olympic games
telecast on the ABC television program Nightline. William P. Morgan, a
prominent sports psychologist from the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
mentioned that there is no scientific evidence that the intervention techniques
used with athletes actually improve performance. Since the topic of the Nightline
program dealt with the psychological

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preparation of Olympic athletes, it later became clear that Morgan's remarks were
being addressed to the dearth of intervention studies on elite athletes. But of four
studies with elite athletes, 75 percent show positive effects of cognitive-
behavioral interventions on sports performance. For example, semiprofessional
baseball players improved batting efficiency average as a result of performance
that was contingent on monetary rewards (Heward, 1978) and an Olympic
pommel-horse athlete, who received stress-inoculation training, improved
performance in a number of meets more than other gymnasts (Mace et al., 1987).
In studies with comparison groups, the results are mixed. For instance,
Mumford and Hall (1985) found that sectional and national level figure skaters
given four 50-minute sessions of various kinds of imagery were not rated any
differently by judges than figure skaters who watched films related to, but not of,
skating figures. In another study involving elite athletes, Kim (1989) obtained the
complete cooperation of Korean sports administrators to randomly assign
Olympic rifle shooters to treatment conditions. The 48 subjects (aged 18-30) were
assigned in equal numbers to four groups: a relaxation/imagery group, a
meditation/imagery group, a combined relaxation/imagery/meditation group, and
a no-treatment control group. The subjects in the first two groups listened to
either a relaxation/imagery or a meditation/imagery audio-cassette tape in a
private room two times a day over a 6-week period for a total of 13 hours of
treatment. Subjects in the combined group listened to the meditation/imagery tape
for 3 weeks and then listened to the relaxation/ imagery tape for 3 weeks. The
subjects in the control group listened to a tape that contained classical music
without any instruction.
The results of Kim's (1989) study showed no pretest differences among
groups, but there were significant pretest-posttest differences for anxiety and
performance. Although no differences were found for the relaxation/imagery and
control groups, the meditation/imagery and combined meditation/relaxation/
imagery groups showed both significant posttest reductions in self-reported
anxiety and better shooting performance. Analysis of posttest scores only
revealed a significant difference among groups for shooting performance (p
< .05), and Scheffe post hoc tests showed this was due to the combined group
performing better than the control group. 9 Kim (1989) concluded that his
findings support Suinn's (1983) and Smith's (1980) contention that combining
treatment components is an effective clinical technique for enhancing
performance.
These studies suggest that the effects of interventions used with elite athletes
may be more beneficial if multiple component treatments are used. This finding
is consistent with Greenspan and Feltz's (1989) review: where using a multiple
component treatment (e.g., relaxation

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combined with imagery or modeling), three of the five studies (Hall and
Erffmeyer, 1983; Lee and Hewitt, 1987; Weinberg et al., 1981) showed better
performance in competitive conditions than studies using a single component
treatment (e.g., only imagery). In comparison to Mumford and Hall's (1985)
findings, Kim's results are consistent with Whelan et al.'s (1989) observations
that greater intervention effects are found with tasks that are more objectively
scored than those by judges' ratings. Moreover, they are in accord with the
general progressive relaxation literature (reviewed by Borkovec and Sides,
1979), in which more treatment sessions were shown to produce changes in
physiological measures of arousal than fewer sessions.
There are also data from some single-subject design studies in which the
interventions were remedial in nature (reviewed by Greenspan and Feltz, 1989).
Six cognitive restructuring studies involved an athlete or coach seeking help for
an anxiety or concentration problem, and the author of the study then evaluated
the problem, developed an intervention, applied it, and then assessed it (Hamilton
and Fremouw, 1985; Heward, 1978; Heyman, 1987; Kirschenbaum and Bale,
1980:Study 2; Komaki and Barnett, 1977; Meyers et al., 1982).10 Five of the
studies showed significant improvements in performance. This success rate was
higher than the control-group studies reviewed by Greenspan and Feltz (1989).
These findings are also consistent with the general clinical literature that shows
patients who are given progressive muscle relaxation by a therapist have stronger
effects than nonpatients. In addition, subjects receiving instructions directly from
a therapist showed a greater relaxation response than did subjects receiving
standardized taped instructions with no opportunity to control their training
progress (Borkovec and Sides, 1979). Thus, the reviews of the sports literature
generally support Borkovec and Sides' (1979:119) conclusion:
The likelihood of producing significant physiological reductions via
progressive relaxation appears to be greater when multi-session, subject-
controlled training is conducted with subjects for whom physiological activity
contributes to a presenting, clinical problem.
At first glance the reviews of the sports literature appear to show rather
consistent findings; however, Greenspan and Feltz (1989) also acknowledge
several cautions in interpreting this literature. Most of this literature is based on
collegiate samples, with very few studies examining cognitive-behavioral
interventions with elite or young athletes. According to Greenspan and Feltz
(1989), future research needs to emphasize: the use of appropriate single-subject
or treatment group designs sufficient to infer causality; comparison of different
interventions; the development of more treatment manuals so that future research

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can become more standardized; assessment of nontargeted areas (e.g., cognitive

changes) in addition to the targeted performance components; and follow-up
assessments to determine the long-term effects of different psychological
interventions on athletes performing in competitive situations.
Furthermore, although the meta-analyses of mental practice and cognitive-
behavioral interventions in general have consistently shown that these techniques
can enhance motor performance and sports skills, there are individual studies that
have not shown positive effects. Since the 1989 reviews of Greenspan and Feltz
and Whelan et al., there have been studies showing enhanced performance (Feltz
and Riessinger, 1990; Kendall et al., 1990) and studies showing no effects of
cognitive-behavioral interventions (Lawrence et al., 1990; McCullagh et al.,
1990a, 1990b; Morrison and Walker, 1990). Some of the studies showing
nonsignificant effects have been conducted in military settings; all of them are
directly relevant to issues raised in the committee's first book (Druckman and
Swets, 1988). In the next two sections, we compare these studies with previous
reviews on cognitive-behavioral techniques in order to gain insight into why
some studies show positive effects and others do not. This comparison is divided
into the two primary types of cognitive-behavioral technique used, modeling and
imagery or mental practice.

Modeling
Although there is an extensive amount of research on modeling of social
skills, modeling or observational learning of motor or sports skills has not
received prolonged and systematic study. A recent review (McCullagh et al.,
1989) proposed an integrative model that attempts to consolidate several aspects
of various motor behavior disciplines—motor learning and control, sports
psychology, motor development, etc. It is clear from this review that there are
many factors associated with the observer, the observer's perception of the
action, the demonstration, rehearsal strategies, behavioral responses, and
feedback that are influential in how modeling can affect skill acquisition and
performance. In general, studies examining attentional, retentional, and
motivational aspects of modeling have shown enhanced performance of people
who are exposed in comparison with control groups that are not exposed to such
demonstrations. This section covers research that examined modeling through the
use of commercially available videotapes (theoretical and practical issues dealing
with modeling are presented in Chapter 4).
In two studies supported by the United States Tennis Association,
McCullagh et al. (1990b) examined the effectiveness of using Sybervision sports
training videotapes as a learning tool for the tennis serve. College

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students with limited tennis playing experience were compared in a pretest-

posttest design on their form and accuracy in the tennis serve. In the first
experiment, there were the following four groups: a Sybervision tape of Stan
Smith (12 subjects), physical practice of 20 serves per session (13 subjects),
Sybervision plus physical practice (10 subjects), and physical activity instruction
unrelated to tennis (i.e., motivational control, 9 subjects). As recommended in the
Sybervision instructions, the treatment of seven sessions extended over 4 weeks.
In addition to assigning points (0 to 5) for accuracy of the serve, the subjects'
performances were filmed and later evaluated by two experienced tennis
instructors for their form in executing the proper stance, grip, toss, backswing,
and point of contact and follow-through; with 0-5 points for each of these
technical elements, the form scores for each of the 10 pretest and 10 posttest
serves ranged from 0 to 25. The results showed only that all groups made a
significant improvement in form scores from pretest to posttest. There were no
effects for accuracy, and neither measure showed differences among the groups.
With the small sample size used in this study, there may not have been
sufficient statistical power to detect differential improvement made by the
treatment groups. Unfortunately, McCullagh et al. (1990b) did not give
information on the relative strength of the performance gains. Although the
interaction was not statistically significant, inspection of the effect sizes for each
group revealed that the combined group of Sybervision and physical practice had
the largest effect size (0.42), followed by Sybervision only (0.30), control (0.17)
and physical practice (0.13).
A second study by McCullagh et al. (1990a) attempted to add additional
components to the Sybervision tennis serving demonstrations to see if this would
facilitate the performance (accuracy and form) as well as subjects' ability to
recognize errors in another player's serves. Following the pretest of 10 serves, the
46 subjects were randomly assigned to either the Sybervision only group,
Sybervision plus physical practice group (20 serves per session), Sybervision plus
mental rehearsal group (Sybervision audiotape at end of each session
accompanied by imagery), and Sybervision plus verbal cues (videotape with
audiotape overlay of brief verbal cues directing subject's attention to racquet
position, weight shifts, form and height of ball toss, fluid motion, backswing,
point of contact, and follow-through). The results revealed that all groups
significantly increased in form but decreased in accuracy from pretest to posttest.
These results were attributed to the emphasis in the Sybervision instructions on
Stan Smith's form. This emphasis may have carried over to the posttest and
resulted in subjects' concentrating on form to the detriment of accuracy. (No
meaningful information was derived

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from the error recognition data since, with the measure used, even the judges had
trouble identifying errors.) Finally, no one group had significantly better form
than any other group, although the effect sizes for the Sybervision plus imagery
group (1.48) and Sybervision plus verbal cues group (1.30) were considerably
higher than the Sybervision only group (0.66) and the Sybervision plus physical
practice group (0.64). Compared to the earlier study (McCullagh et al., 1990b),
the larger effect sizes for the Sybervision group were likely due to subjects' in the
second study (McCullagh et al., 1990a) seeing the videotape twice as many times
within the same time and number of sessions.
Two modeling studies—one of diving and one of basketball foul shooting
(cited in Whelan et al., 1989)—showed statistically significant group effects
(Feltz et al., 1979; Hall and Erffmeyer, 1983). These studies did not examine
Sybervision, but both contained a videotape of a model that was combined with
other treatments: for example, relaxation/imagery, focus on sensory cues,
physical practice, informational feedback, or repetition of important steps (cues)
in the model's demonstration. These conditions yielded a 20 percent
improvement in number of correct dives (Feltz et al., 1979) and a 9 percent
improvement in basketball foul shooting (Hall and Erffmeyer, 1983).
The subjects in Hall and Erffmeyer's (1983) study were highly experienced
female basketball players. This study also had more pretest and posttest
performance trials (100 each) than the Sybervision studies. These factors may
have helped to produce more stable performance scores. In addition, due to
greater experience on the task, the subjects may have been able to gain more
information from the model. In a study of bowling, Rothstein and Arnold (1976)
concluded that experienced subjects benefited more from videotapes of bowlers
than did novice performers. This finding suggests that having a background in the
sport may be an important prerequisite for deriving knowledge from a videotape
of an expert model.
An important differentiating factor in the Feltz et al. (1979) study of diving,
but not in the McCullagh et al. studies of tennis serving, was the provision of
informational feedback following each trial. Feedback on the correctness of the
subject's performance, combined with having the subjects verbally repeat the
steps in the dive that the model demonstrated, may have been important in the
videotape group's achievement of a 20 percent increase in correct dives.
McCullagh et al. (1990b:16) recognized the importance of knowledge of results
or knowledge of performance and suggested that the Sybervision program would
“never really be effective unless it is supplemented with personalized
instruction.”
The potency of providing feedback for motor skill acquisition is well

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recognized. In sports, simple as well as complex techniques that provide feedback

about one's own performance are becoming increasingly more popular. For
example, at Vic Braden's Tennis Academy feedback techniques include wall
markings to provide information on the consistency of the ball toss for the tennis
serve and slow motion films of performers' tennis techniques. With the use of
computer technology, subjects can also be provided with knowledge of outcomes
(e.g., with the laser rifle system at the U.S. Olympic Training Center or the
shooting system at Ft. Benning) or sophisticated knowledge of technique (Peak
Performance or SelSpot Systems). For example, subjects can be given, in real
time, kinematic information about their movement such as force/time curves
(Howell, 1956), position/time graphs (Hatze, 1976), or kinematic feedback
(Newell et al., 1983, 1985). Although there is now a wealth of biomechanical
technology to quantify movement and present this information in more
sophisticated ways, the implementation of this technology in providing
systematic feedback to facilitate learning of physical skills is in its infancy. The
basic problem that needs to be addressed is “what information feedback to use
and how to use it to optimize learning for beginners and to help advanced
performers make corrections in their well-learned techniques” (Christina,
1987:35). More research needs to be conducted to determine, for real-world
tasks, the ways in which task conditions should be structured and feedback given
(i.e., by type, amount, scheduling, etc.) to those learning new skills or effecting
changes in well-learned skills.

Imagery and Mental Practice in Military Settings

Although the sports and motor performance literature has generally shown
that imagery and mental practice are effective in enhancing performance, there
are some recent applications to military settings that have failed to find this
relationship. One study examined various measures of soldering performance in
groups that were either trained in imagery rehearsal, relaxation, or received no
training (control) (Lawrence et al., 1990). Another study examined tank gunnery
performance for subjects in a no-treatment control group and a mental practice
group (Morrison and Walker, 1990). A close examination of these studies
revealed several limitations in the design and methodological procedures. Those
limitations render these studies virtually useless in determining if these
cognitive-behavioral techniques are effective in military settings, but they are
instructive in identifying methodological procedures that may mask imagery and
mental practice effects in operational military environments.

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Unlike most of the motor performance laboratory studies on mental

practice, in which subjects are randomly assigned to experimental and control
conditions, the military studies used intact groups. The use of intact groups raises a
risk that variables other than the one of interest (i.e., independent variable) may
affect the dependent performance measures, and this may have been a problem in
these military studies. The disparities among or between groups could be due to
any number of factors associated with the characteristics of the groups. For
instance, in the Lawrence et al. (1990) study, there was more variability among
the three intact groups in each treatment condition than there was between the
mental rehearsal, relaxation, and control groups. Likewise, in the Morrison and
Walker (1990) study, there was a substantial difference between the mental
practice and control groups at the pretest.11 These problems are not uncommon
when intact groups are used. The mental practice group happened to have higher
general technical (GT) scores (i.e., word knowledge, paragraph comprehension,
and arithmetic reasoning) than the control subjects. This led the researchers to
suggest that this may have influenced the significantly higher pretest tank
gunnery scores of the mental practice group.
There are other methodological problems in the military studies. The study
by Lawrence et al. (1990) used judges' ratings which have been shown to be
associated with the weakest sports performance effects (Whelan et al. 1989). In
addition, subjects in this study may not have been sufficiently motivated since
their soldering performances were voluntary and were not being graded.
Methodological problems could have masked the effects of mental practice
on tank gunnery performance in the Morrison and Walker (1990) study. A mental
rehearsal briefing given before, instead of after, the pretest could have affected
the superior pretest performance of the mental practice group. In addition, while
waiting their turn, control subjects watched their partners perform on the
simulator; thus, modeling effects for control subjects, combined with the possible
use of mental practice, may have offset the mental practice effects for the
experimental subjects. Morrison and Walker were aware of these potential
confounding variables, but dismissed them as unavoidable in operational military
conditions. Like many psychological variables, the small to moderate
performance effects produced by cognitive-behavioral interventions are unlikely
to be evident when operational routines place major methodological restrictions
on the study. These problems are also present in sports settings, but as the Kim
(1989) study has shown, they can be overcome. By gaining the cooperation of
coaches or sports administrators, some routine procedures may be changed in
order to permit a study to detect group differences in performance. Once the
effect has been

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scientifically demonstrated under altered operational conditions, it can then be

decided whether the effect is beneficial enough to suggest incorporation into the
operational routine.

Summary
The sports psychology literature convincingly shows that cognitive-
behavioral techniques can produce small to moderate improvements in various
types of motor performance. Most of the studies illustrating these effects have
used novice or proficient performers, and there are a few studies that have even
shown these effects in elite athletes. Although few individual studies have been
designed to examine variables that may moderate these small to moderate
improvements, the narrative and meta-analytic reviews suggest that the
performance gains accruing from cognitive-behavioral interventions and their
measurement can be enhanced if they include: multiple components, imagery,
relaxation, feedback, modeling, cognitive restructuring, etc.; direct administration
of the treatment rather than indirect administration by audiotape, particularly in
the case of progressive muscle relaxation; the use of many sessions, particularly
for tasks with more motor and fewer cognitive components; and behavioral, self-
report, or physiological performance measures rather than judges' ratings. In
addition, the interventions show stronger results for subjects who have problems
with precompetitive anxiety or concentration. Even if some of these factors are
not present, cognitive-behavioral interventions can still improve performance.
However, the effects may be less or they may take longer to achieve. In
operational environments in which intact groups are typically used and strict
adherence to methodological procedures are often not possible, the effectiveness
of cognitive-behavioral interventions may be difficult to discern. Recently,
investigators have attempted to tie cognitive-behavioral techniques more closely
to actual sports performance by building these techniques into the
preperformance routines of the athletes. The popular and scientific literature
dealing with the use of cognitive-behavioral techniques in the preperformance
routines of athletes are presented in the next section.

PREPERFORMANCE ROUTINES, SPORTS PERFORMANCE,

AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES
One recent concern among sports psychologists is that cognitive-behavioral
techniques taught to athletes in noncompetitive settings may not generalize to
performance in settings characterized by intense competitive pressure. The basic
premise in this type of research is that the

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few seconds preceding the execution of a motor skill are critical for successful
performance (Gould et al., 1980; Mahoney and Avener, 1977; Suinn, 1977).
Whether athletes have good mental control the day before or an hour before
competition may have little to do with the control they exhibit immediately prior
to performance. By training athletes to incorporate cognitive-behavioral
techniques at the time of actual performance, it is believed that their levels of
concentration will be enhanced and thus their performance will be improved. The
varied literature on preperformance routines is presented in this section in two
parts: performance effects of preperformance routines and electrophysiological
correlates associated with these routines.

Preperformance Routines and Sports Performance

Structured preperformance routines have typically been used by experienced
performers executing skill activities when the environment is static (e.g., tennis
serve, golf putt, archery, gun shooting). According to Crews and Boutcher
(1986b:291), a preperformance routine consists of “a set pattern of cue thoughts,
actions, and images consistently carried out before performance of the skill.”
They suggest that athletes have learned a preperformance routine “to divert
attention away from negative, irrelevant information, to stop attention focusing on
a well-learned skill (e.g., disruption of automatic processing), and to establish the
appropriate physical and mental state for the ensuing task” (Crews and Boutcher,
1986b:291). If athletes do not have a well-established preperformance routine,
they say one should be developed for them. Before it is developed, an athlete
should have some proficiency in a variety of cognitive-behavioral techniques.
An example of a commercially available preperformance routine is Loehr's
(1989) mental toughness training program. To improve a person's tennis games,
this videotape teaches tennis players a series of steps to be followed during the
time between points. As director of sports science for the U.S. Tennis Association
and consultant to the Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy, Loehr has observed the
between-point behaviors of numerous expert tennis players and has interviewed
them about their between-point cognitions. He has concluded that there is a four-
part pattern exhibited by the top players that reveals more about their mental
toughness than can be ascertained during point play. Loehr believes that his
unique player development system will produce a more confident, mentally tough
athlete—the “challenge attitude”12 who will perform at a high level more
consistently.
The mental toughness training program has four stages: positive physical
response, relaxation response, preparation response, and rituals response.

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The positive physical response stage begins immediately following the scoring of
a point and lasts 3-5 seconds. According to Loehr, mentally tough athletes
maintain their composure and display a strong, fighting, positive physical image.
They may clap for opponents, clinch their fists for a good shot, or simply walk
away from a mistake. They typically place the racquet in their opposite hand,
carried by the throat at the balance point, as they walk briskly back to the
baseline. Their eyes are forward and down and the shoulders are back.
The second stage, the relaxation response, lasts 6-15 seconds, depending on
the stress associated with the previous point and the amount of preparation
needed for the next point. During this stage, a player's eyes are directed toward
the racquet strings and the physical image they present continues to be strong and
competitive. The high energy walk back to the baseline continues as athletes walk
back and forth until breathing and heart rate stabilize. It is also common for
expert tennis players to relax the arms and hands, do stretches, or take deep
breaths during this stage.
The third stage is the preparation response, which begins as players move
toward the baseline to serve or receive the serve, and also lasts about 6-15
seconds. Players typically lift and direct their eyes to the opposite side of the
court and make a strong statement with their bodies: for example, “I will win this
point.” Following this there may be a momentary pause while the players covertly
go over the score and their intentions for the next point.
The last stage is the ritual response, which lasts 5-8 seconds and begins as
soon as a player steps to the baseline. The purpose of this stage is to adjust
arousal levels and deepen concentration. The two components characterizing this
stage are bouncing the ball two or more times and pausing after the last bounce to
help slow the service motion under the pressure of competition. When returning a
serve, players' rituals typically consist of stimulation of the feet or making a
physical gesture (such as jumping up and down on their toes or swaying back and
forth). During this stage, top tennis players only think about the serve (if they are
serving) or the return (if they are returning the serve). They do not think about
technical aspects of tennis, such as the grip, strokes, or stance: this type of
cognitive elaboration in the moments prior to response execution is believed to
interfere with athletes' ability to play instinctively and automatically.
Although this is a preset routine, Loehr suggests that after it is taught,
athletes can individualize the content making up the various stages of the
preperformance routine. The observations that led to Loehr's model of the
between-point behavioral and mental routines of expert tennis players was not
experimental research. Although Loehr's preperformance

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routine has been used, there are no scientific studies that have examined its
effectiveness. The crucial question is whether those using structured
preperformance routines perform better than those who do not use them.
Fortunately, there is an emerging sports science literature that has addressed this
question.
Observational analyses of professional golfers also reveal the use of well-
defined, consistent routines for both putts and full swings (Crews and Boutcher,
1986a). The cognitive-behavioral strategies incorporate such mental functions as
choosing a target, visualizing the flight of the ball to the target, kinesthetically
feeling a perfect shot, and using cue words. Juxtaposed with the mental routine,
the preshot routine incorporates taking a practice swing that simulates the desired
swing, aligning the feet in relation to the target, “waggling” the club, and
glancing at the hole.
Using cognitive and behavioral elements like these, Crews and Boutcher
(1986b) assigned 15 golfers from a beginning golf class to an experimental,
preshot routine group and 15 to a control group (no preshot routine). Following
an 8-week preshot routine training program, Crews and Boutcher found that the
performance of the preshot routine group improved only for the better male
golfers, and they concluded that preshot routine training improved performance
when physical skills were well learned. In another study of 12 collegiate golfers
(Boutcher and Crews, 1987), both males and females improved the consistency
of the preshot routine behaviors following a 6-week training period, but only the
females improved in task performance.
Preshot routines have also been effective in improving basketball free-throw
shooting performance (Lobmeyer and Wasserman, 1986) and novel motor task
performance (Singer et al., 1989). Following a preshot training program, subjects
improved 7 percent in performance when using their preshot routine than when
not using the routine (Lobmeyer and Wasserman, 1986). In a laboratory
environment, ten subjects were taught a five-step learning strategy that
sequentially consisted of readying, imaging, focusing, executing, and evaluating.
Following four practice trials, subjects in the “learning strategy group” performed
significantly faster—and not at the expense of greater number of errors—than did
a control group and the group that previewed the location of the six targets.
Preperformance routines have generally been effective in improving motor
or sports performance of beginning level performers, but their effects have yet to
be demonstrated in elite performers. Although the introduction of a preshot
routine resulted in a more consistent preperformance routine and led golfers to
report that the intervention had a positive effect on their concentration, Cohn et
al. (1990) failed to find immediate

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improvements in performance for three subjects. This study, however, used very
few observations (2-8 rounds of nine-hole play) following the introduction of the
preshot routine. With elite performers, it is possible that much more practice in
using a preshot routine is necessary to improve par-level golf performance.
Interview data from athletes and the general assumptions of investigators
support the idea that a preperformance routine increases a performer's
concentration and facilitates performance. Although athletes given training in a
preperformance routine report better concentration, retrospective reports of
cognitive processes are known to be unreliable (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977);
retrospective reports are often based on implicit, a priori assumptions of the cause
of subsequent behavior. Furthermore, athletes' inability to describe their
preperformance state is consistent with descriptions of the cognitive state
associated with “peak performance” as being characterized by (Gallwey, 1981):
body/brain integration; allowing things to happen rather than trying to force a
particular performance outcome; total absorption in the activity while maintaining
unconscious awareness of process cues (relevant feelings, balance and weight
distribution, etc.); lack of recall due to the mind being “blank” immediately prior
to the response; and obvious difficulty in putting the cognitive and behavioral
actions of the preperformance period into words. Trying to obtain self-reports
during the preperformance routine is counter-productive since it will interfere
with the desired state of automatic processing in the moments before response
execution. Thus, several investigators have examined electrophysiological
indicators of attention while athletes are in a preperformance routine prior to the
performance of a discrete, closed skill that involves minimal movement. This
literature, which has dealt with measures of heart rate and
electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, is reviewed in the next section.

Physiological Correlates of Preparation to Perform

The experimental psychology literature offers several research techniques
with which to measure attention (e.g., a dual-task paradigm to divide attention,
readiness potentials, and averaged evoked potential of the EEG). Although these
techniques have been used with shooters (Landers et al., 1985; Rose and
Christina, 1990), the manipulations involved disrupt performance on self-paced
tasks (and sports) and thus decrease the ecological validity. An alternate approach
has been to use continuous psychophysiological measures (previously used in
laboratory studies of attention) to examine the performance of archers, shooters,
and golfers (Hatfield and Landers, 1987; Landers, 1985). Although several
psychophysiological measures have been used in this research,

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the ones that have produced the most consistent results during athletes'
preperformance routines in the sports of archery, rifle shooting, and golf putting
have been measures of cardiac deceleration and spontaneous EEG activity.

Cardiac Deceleration
Stimuli of various types produce a pattern of beat-by-beat cardiac
acceleration or deceleration in the 3-5 seconds prior to a response. The direction
and magnitude of change has been related to performance and is suggested to be
an indicator of an individual's attentive state. This cardiac pattern prior to
initiating a response has been subject to varying explanations (see Coles, 1984;
Graham, 1979; Jennings et al., 1978; Kahneman, 1973; Lacey et al., 1963; Obrist
et al., 1970; van der Molen et al., 1985).
Lacey's intake-rejection hypothesis (Lacey, 1967; Lacey et al., 1963) is one
hypothesis that attempts to explain the cardiac pattern that occurs prior to a
response. According to this hypothesis, as a person focuses on the external
environment and attempts to take in external stimuli, the heart decelerates; then,
as the person focuses internally and rejects external stimuli, the heart accelerates.
Tasks requiring internal cognitive elaboration of a problem-solving sort (e.g.,
mental arithmetic, reversed spelling, sentence structure) produce cardiac
acceleration (Lacey et al., 1963). Cardiac deceleration has typically been found in
a motor response paradigm, a reaction-time (RT) task (Lacey and Lacey, 1964,
1966, 1970). Using a 4-second RT foreperiod, Lacey and Lacey found a pattern
of deceleration three or four beats prior to the stimulus; this pattern terminated
with the onset of the stimulus light.13 Performance on the RT task was associated
with greater cardiac deceleration, although the correlations were low (Lacey and
Lacey, 1964, 1966, 1970).
The intake-rejection hypothesis has been criticized for being too general.
Several investigators have suggested that task specificity might be responsible for
disagreements in interpreting cardiac patterning associated with information
processing (Bohlin and Kjellberg, 1979; Carroll and Anastasiades, 1978; Coles,
1984; Elliott, 1972; Graham, 1979; Hahn, 1973; Jennings et al., 1978). The
original work by Lacey et al. (1963) stated that cardiac deceleration was an
indication of the intention to note and detect external events. In examining the
nature of the tasks, it is apparent that there are actually two components occurring
simultaneously that comprise the intake-rejection hypothesis. One is the intake of
the external stimuli (warning and imperative stimulus) created in the foreperiod
of the RT task and the rejection of the external environment to solve the problems
in the math task. The second component is the type of cognitive

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task used to create the intake-rejection situation. In 1963, Lacey et al. referred to
the RT task as one that increases sensory awareness, while the math task
increases cognitive elaboration and processing within the brain. The name of the
hypothesis stresses the intake and rejection component; however, it is possible
that it is the processing component required that determines cardiac pattern.
Other investigators have questioned that cardiac deceleration is simply an
indication to note and detect external events. The Laceys (1974), for example,
suggested that anticipatory deceleration may also be associated with intention to
respond. Coles (1984) has argued that these two intentions are confounded and
that cardiac deceleration primarily reflects motor readiness, not anticipatory
sensory input. Contrary to Coles (1984), Graham (1979) believes that stimulus
input is reflected by cardiac deceleration and preparation for output produces
cardiac acceleration.
Regardless of whether cardiac deceleration is indicative of intake of sensory
information, preparation for output, or sensory awareness, it is hypothesized that
experienced athletes with a consistent preperformance routine have better
attentional skills and would thus show a pattern of cardiac deceleration prior to
performance. Several studies have investigated the relationship between cardiac
deceleration and attention in the few seconds before response execution in sports
(with minimal potential for movement artifact in the cardiac measure). For
example, Stern (1976) used the sequence of “get set,” 5 seconds, “go” commands
and found that subjects preparing for either a sprint up a flight of stairs or a
bicycle sprint showed a phasic cardiac change of acceleration until 1 second
before the “go” signal and then showed a deceleration from 1 second to the “go”
command. Hatfield et al. (1987) found a trend for cardiac deceleration in elite
rifle marksmen in the 2.5 seconds prior to the execution of the shot. Among
highly skilled golfers, significant cardiac decelerations of 4-11 beats per minute
have been found within 3-7 seconds of a putt (Boutcher and Zinsser, 1990;
Crews, 1989; Molander and Backman, 1989). Only Salazar et al. (1990) reported
cardiac acceleration in elite archers immediately prior to arrow release. This may
have been due to the physical demands of overcoming the 31-50 pound bowstring
tension. When archers have used lower bowstring tensions (20-25 pounds)
(Landers et al., 1991a) or shot at shorter distances (Schmid, 1989), cardiac
deceleration has been clearly evident.
There is also evidence in these cross-sectional studies that cardiac
acceleration is associated with poorer performance (Molander and Backman,
1989) with novice performers (Schmid, 1989) and that greater degrees of cardiac
deceleration are associated with better performance (Boutcher and Zinsser, 1990;
Crews, 1989). Schmid (1989) found that “subconscious

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shooters” had greater cardiac deceleration than “cognitive shooters”14 The degree
to which cardiac deceleration differences noted between novice and experienced
performers are associated with learning the task has been investigated in archers.
The archers experienced a 62 percent increase in performance over a 12-week
period in which they had received 27 sessions of archery training (35 hours total)
from the 1988 Olympic coach of the U.S. National Archery Team (Landers et al.,
1991a).15 In contrast to studies conducted with laboratory RT tasks (Hahn, 1973)
or sports tasks with novice performers (Stern, 1976), the studies investigating
sports tasks with experienced athletes have generally shown greater deceleration.

Hemispheric Asymmetries in the Brain

In addition to examining cardiac deceleration during athletes'
preperformance routines, Hatfield et al. (1984, 1987) also investigated associated
time-locked EEG asymmetries between the hemispheres of the brain. The use of
EEG measures was prompted by their promotion as a more direct measure of
attentional states (Gale and Edwards, 1983; Obrist, 1981), their success in
differentiating varying states of attentional focus (Davidson et al., 1976; Ray and
Cole, 1985; Ray and Kimmel, 1979), and their stability and reliability over time
(Gasser et al., 1985; Wheeler et al., 1989). The use of this measure was partly
based on Walker and Sandman's findings (1979, 1982) that cardiovascular
changes differentially influence the left and right sides of the brain. More
recently, Sandman and Walker (1985) have pointed out that cardiovascular
influences on the activity in the right and left hemispheres may vary from
moment to moment and that the ability of an organism to detect and react to the
environment may be intimately linked to hemispheric asymmetry. Although
cardiovascular changes have been shown to be related to hemispheric changes
(Walker and Sandman, 1979, 1982; Sandman and Walker, 1985) and hemispheric
asymmetries have been predictive of performance accuracy (Gevins et al., 1987,
1989), these studies have neither investigated experienced athletes during their
preperformance routines nor have they used spontaneous EEG measures.
By using skilled individuals to reduce response variability in EEGs
(O'Connor, 1981), Hatfield et al. (1984, 1987) examined spontaneous EEGs
during the preparatory period within 7.5 seconds prior to the trigger pull by elite
rifle shooters. They found that left temporal (T3) and left occipital (O1) EEG
alpha activity (8-12 Hz) significantly increased during that period. This suggests
that the activation level in the left hemisphere was declining. Further examination
of the relationship between heart rate and EEG revealed that, within 2.5 seconds
prior to

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the shot, cardiac deceleration was associated with increased alpha activity in the
left hemisphere while right alpha remained constant. Hatfield et al. interpreted
these findings as indicative of cognitive changes (reducing the covert
verbalizations of the left hemisphere and increasing the visual-spatial processes
dominant in the right hemisphere), which allow dominance of the right
hemisphere at the time of the shot.
In subsequent EEG studies with archers and golfers, second-to-second
changes in EEGs prior to the response and multiple EEG bands have been
examined. During the preparatory period (3-5 seconds), which is characterized by
intense concentration, experienced athletes have shown greater increases in left
hemisphere alpha activity than in right hemisphere activity (Crews, 1989;
Landers et al., 1991a; Salazar et al., 1990). The asymmetry was greatest at 1
second before the response (shot or putt) and was not evident earlier (up to 5
seconds) or immediately following the response (Wang and Landers, 1987). This
effect was independent of minor bodily movements (e.g., eye blinks) (Crews,
1989; Landers et al., 1991a; Salazar et al., 1990). Furthermore, Salazar et al.
(1990) have shown that even when the physical exertion of drawing a 40-50
pound bow was controlled, the hemispheric differences were still evident.
Although left hemispheric activity increases more than right hemispheric
activity (particularly in the alpha range), better performance has been found to be
associated with a moderate increase in left hemisphere EEG activity at the time
of the shot or putt (Crews, 1989; Landers et al., 1991a; Salazar et al., 1990).
Comparisons of best and worst shots revealed no significant right hemisphere
spectral power differences, but there were significant left hemisphere differences
(Landers et al., 1991a; Salazar et al., 1990). (The muscular forces and handedness
were the same for best and worst shots, so the differences in EEG activity could
not be attributed to muscular contaminants.) Although reliable EEG asymmetries
have been observed in highly experienced performers, the above-mentioned
studies do not provide information on whether these EEG patterns are developed
through training in the skill. Recent studies by Landers et al. (1991a) and Landers
et al. (1991b) suggest that these EEG patterns are trainable. For example, in rank
beginners, the EEG asymmetries were not evident 2 weeks into training, but were
evident at a time (14th week) when archery performance had improved 62
percent (Landers et al., 1991a). In Landers et al.'s study (1991b), the moderate
increase in left hemispheric EEG activity immediately before the motor response
was used as a model of “correct performance” in a biofeedback training study. A
group of 24 pre-elite archers were randomly assigned in equal numbers to three
groups: a correct feedback group (i.e., greater left hemisphere low-frequency
activity), an incorrect feedback group

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(i.e., greater right hemisphere low-frequency activity), and a no feedback control

group. The pretest and posttest consisted of 27 shots with EEG data collected for
the left and right temporal hemispheres. Analyses indicated that the correct
feedback group significantly improved performance, while the incorrect feedback
group showed a significant performance decrement from pretest to posttest. The
control group showed no significant pretest-posttest differences in performance.
EEG analyses showed differences that were consistent with the training given to
the incorrect, but not the correct, feedback group. Overall, these training studies
demonstrate that the EEG patterns observed during athletes' preperformance
routines become more similar to the patterns observed in elite athletes with
increased training or specific EEG feedback known to be associated with better
performance.

Summary
The studies examining preperformance routines show that they are used by
better performers, and people trained in the use of these routines generally show
better performance. Preperformance routines teach athletes to habitually use
cognitive-behavioral techniques at strategic times in their sports performances.
Most of the sports studies have been conducted in practice settings, and more
research is needed to compare the benefits of preperformance routines in practice
with their benefits in competitive settings. The consistent patterns in EEG
hemispheric asymmetries and cardiac deceleration during the latter stages of the
preperformance routine suggest that they are learned responses that are indicative
of better attentional focus and that result in overall better performance. These
psychophysiological measures can assist in determining the efficiency of
preperformance routines.
From questionnaire responses of best and worst performers (Crews and
Landers, 1991), it appears that those patterns may be indexing a state of
automatic processing: best performers are focused on overall bodily awareness
and relevant external cues (e.g., hole or target); worst performers, who failed to
consistently display the asymmetric EEG pattern, were more often focused on
what might be called cognitive elaboration of specific cues (e.g., backswing, club
head, etc.). Crews and Landers (1991) have noted that by increasing total
awareness, the best golfers were perhaps adopting a “let it happen,” automatic
approach, while the worst performers were perhaps trying to “make it happen”
and cognitively control the putt (Gallwey, 1981). Further research is necessary to
substantiate the value of a preperformance routine in fostering a state of
automatic processing.

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EXERCISE AND STRESS

The relationship between aerobic fitness and psychological well-being is an
area within the field of exercise and sports psychology that has received
considerable attention in the last 5 years. Research interest among exercise
scientists on such topics as depression, anxiety, sleep, and reactivity to
psychosocial stressors has intensified with the recognition that the life-styles of
millions of Americans are disrupted due to anxiety and depression (Dishman,
1982; Morgan, 1979) and that primary care physicians routinely prescribe
exercise for these and other emotional disorders (Ryan, 1983). Recent meta-
analytic reviews have shown that aerobic exercise can have a small but reliable
effect in reducing state (acute) and trait (chronic) anxiety (Petruzzello et al.,
1991), increasing slow wave (i.e., stages 3 & 4) and total sleep time (Kubitz et
al., 1991), and decreasing depression (North et al., 1990). Although these reviews
fail to show that exercise is psychologically more beneficial than the more
conventional psychological techniques—relaxation, imagery, group therapy,
cognitive restructuring, etc.—it is known that carefully prescribed exercise can
have additional health benefits (weight loss, enhanced cardiorespiratory
efficiency and muscle tone, reduced risk of heart attack, etc.), and this may help
to promote adherence to a psychological intervention program involving
exercise.
Related to the topic of performance under pressure is whether or not exercise
contributes to the reduction of psychosocial stress. As of 1987, Crews and
Landers had identified 34 studies that had attempted to determine if the
magnitude of the psychosocial stress response was lower among exercisers, or if
recovery from psychosocial stress was more rapid among exercisers. Since 1987,
there have been approximately 20 additional studies on this topic. Typically,
these studies have included four laboratory stressors: (1) cognitive performance
tasks, such as solving timed arithmetic problems; (2) passive response tasks, such
as viewing films of industrial accidents or medical operations; (3) active physical
performance tasks, such as exercise; and (4) passive physical performance tasks,
such as holding an immersed limb in ice water (Crews and Landers, 1987).
Although these stressor tasks are quite different from operational tasks which
create stress reactions—such as those in everyday life or those in more pressured
settings such as in the military—they do produce sizable elevations in heart rate
and therefore may be relevant for other settings. For example, Crews and Landers
(1987) calculated heart-rate response above initial values and found that the 34
studies could be categorized into high (> 30 beats/minute) or low (< 30 beats/
minute) stress response. Other measures of stress less frequently examined

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 226

in these studies included systolic and diastolic blood pressure, skin response,
hormonal, muscle activity, and psychological self-report.
For the 1,449 subjects, the meta-analytic results showed an overall effect
size of 0.48 (Crews and Landers, 1987). This result indicates that, regardless of
the type of physiological or psychological measure used, aerobically fit subjects
had a reduced stress response. (The magnitude of the effect represented nearly a
one-half standard deviation gain in stress reactivity relative to control
conditions.) The underlying assumption of this laboratory paradigm is that
reduced physiological response to stress or faster physiological recovery results in
less total time spent in stress at perhaps a lower level of stress. In other words,
“exercise either acts as a coping strategy or serves as an ‘inoculator' to more
effectively respond to the intrusion of psychosocial stress” (Crews and Landers,
1987:S118).
The moderator variables examined in the Crews and Landers meta-analysis
included: study and subject characteristics, such as published or unpublished
studies, acute or chronic exercise, and male or female subjects; methodological
characteristics, such as initial or baseline values of stress, whether statistically
controlled, and correlational versus training designs; and stressor characteristics,
such as low or high stress response, stress reactivity versus recovery from stress,
and types of stress measures. A meta-analytic procedure (described by Hedges
and Olkin, 1985) was used to determine if the measures were homogeneous
across studies. The chi-square test did not reject the hypothesis of homogeneity
of effect sizes: that is, the effect-sizes were not related to specific moderating
variables, and so no further breakdown into moderating variables was warranted
(Hedges and Olkin, 1985). Thus, the results suggest that all of the studies could
be represented by the mean effect size, 0.48.16
Although some investigators (Abbott and Peters, 1989) have argued that the
Crews and Landers' (1987) meta-analytic review has precluded conducting
further studies in this area, Blumenthal (1989) has pointed out that there is a need
for more experimental (i.e., training) studies. There is also a need for more
studies that examine: whether anaerobic exercise produces the same buffer to
psychosocial stressors as is found with aerobic exercise, and whether individuals
experiencing more long-term, chronic levels of high stress (e.g., air traffic
controllers) derive psychological benefits from exercise training (Crews and
Landers, 1987).
Many authors have suggested various mechanisms to explain the effects of
exercise on the psychosocial stress response. Earlier explanations focused on
physical activity rather than aerobic exercise. For example, Gal and Lazarus
(1975) suggested that physical activity can reduce stress reactions in four ways:
(1) heightening feelings of control

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 227

and mastery; (2) serving as a defense mechanism to help people forget about their
distress so as to decrease anxiety; (3) providing an attention diversion; and (4)
producing a means of energy discharge allowing for reasonably rapid body
mobilization or arousal. Recently, other investigators (Light, 1982; Shulhan et
al., 1986) have focused more on mechanisms that are directly tied to changes in
aerobic fitness, such as changes in the release of endogenous opiates,
baroreceptor function, release of insulin, sensitivity to beta-adrenergic
stimulation, and stimulation of brain metabolism or levels of serotonin. As
emphasized by Crews and Landers (1987), more research that examines these
underlying mechanisms is necessary to determine how these changes in fitness
actually reduce stress response or time spent in stress. In military settings, with
the exception of orthostatic intolerance for those undergoing high “g” forces
(e.g., fighter pilots) (Bedford and Tipton, 1987; Raven et al., 1984), aerobic
conditioning may help alleviate psychological reactions in most operational
conditions. As physical training is compatible with military training, it should not
be too difficult to design studies in military settings to explore both the
psychological and physiological effects of aerobic exercise.
In summary, several research studies have shown that aerobic exercise can
help people to cope better with psychosocial stressors. The measures of coping
ability used in the studies included physiological and psychological measures of
reactivity to the laboratory stressor and of recovery to baseline levels following
termination of the stressor. These effects are of a moderate size and are
consistent across many studies, but the mechanisms for the effects are unknown.

BROADER VIEWS: NEUROSCIENCE AND PEAK

PERFORMANCE
The foregoing review evaluates the research on techniques that may enhance
the preparation to perform. It is also important to monitor research for potential
breakthroughs in theory and methodology that may provide general guidelines
for evaluating proposed techniques and their potential applications. Particularly in
this “Decade of the Brain,” it is instructive to ask whether advances in
understanding of the human brain and how it controls behavior have aided in the
search for methods that could potentially enhance human performance. In this
section, we review these advances and discuss which lines of scientific inquiry
are likely to provide a better understanding of human performance. In addition,
ecological studies of individuals who achieve extraordinary high performance are
reviewed in order to determine the validity of an “ideal performance state model.”

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 228

One conclusion that is supported by considerable empirical data is that

significant behavioral and performance enhancements can be achieved under
certain conditions. While this conclusion may seem obvious to most readers, it
should be remembered that behavioral constructs earlier in this century
maintained that many behavioral properties were “fixed” entities, resulting from
static physiological features. More recently, neurobiological studies revealed that
enriched and impoverished environments have differential effects on numerous
aspects of cortical structure (e.g., Diamond et al., 1987). Animals raised in
enriched environments have an enlarged cortex and manifest performance
superiorities (e.g., in maze running). Parallel behavioral research has identified
some of the growth-promoting family, training, and other environmental
conditions that may enhance performance (e.g., Bloom, 1985). Both the
neurobiological and behavioral lines of research strongly support the idea that the
innate characteristics of individuals are less important in performance than the
encouragement, nurturance, education, and training they receive. The
implications of these studies are unequivocal in their suggestion that, given the
proper conditions, most individuals are capable of remarkable performance
excellence. The challenge for researchers, as well as for institutions such as the
Army, is to define the training techniques and environmental characteristics that
enhance human performance.

Models of the Brain

In the previous section, and more extensively in the committee's first book
(Druckman and Swets, 1988), we delineate some of the serious shortcomings in
attempts to understand sports performance in the context of any simplified,
metaphysical model of the brain. Sports performance is a quintessential problem
in complex motor, cognitive, affective, and attentional processes, and it depends
on functions that are widely distributed throughout both cerebral hemispheres.
Studies that characterize the cognitive, attentional, or motor components of sports
as “left hemisphere abilities” or “right hemisphere abilities” are fatally flawed.
Not only is it inherently insupportable to characterize sports abilities by brain
hemisphere, it is also methodologically and logically flawed to narrowly localize
these complex processes.
Recent neuroscientific studies using imaging techniques have revealed that
even simple motor processes, such as unilateral ballistic finger movements, have
complex neuroanatomical and neurophysiological correlates (Roland et al., 1982;
Druckman and Lacy, 1989); using a regional cerebral blood flow technique, the
researchers found bilateral increases in blood flow during unilateral ballistic
finger movements in the supplementary

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 229

motor cortex, premotor cortex, parietal opercula, paracentral cortex, putamen,

caudate, and thalamus. Using position emission tomography, regional cerebral
blood flow, and other oxygen and glucose metabolic imaging methods, numerous
studies show that even heavily overlearned tasks, such as handwriting, result in
bilateral metabolic increases in many subcortical regions, especially in the
striatum (Mazziotta and Phelps, 1984). When one considers the cognitive and
other mental components of sports techniques, the picture is even more
complicated. Mental imagery alone is known to increase oxidative metabolic
values in 25 separate cortical areas (Roland et al., 1987).
When researchers attempt to localize mental or motor tasks in brain areas,
the reliability of their results should be carefully considered. These studies must
be considered preliminary in the context of the poor test-retest reliability, the
biological variability between subjects, and the notoriously poor geographical
resolution (i.e., the discrimination of one brain subregion from another) of these
methods (Pahl, 1990). Any study attempting to localize a specific mental event
that uses methods with a resolution of more than 5-7 millimeters is limited in its
reliability. And experiments that use many subjects and average across subjects
and trials may not provide any useful information since the geographical
variability in certain localizable functions (such as language) is already so large
that some information is probably lost of averaging across subjects.
Nevertheless, we encourage the use of novel neuroimaging techniques in the
study of human performance. The application of techniques that are especially
reliable in geographical resolution (e.g., positron emission tomography) in
combination with techniques that are especially reliable in temporal resolution
(e.g., endogenous evoked potentials) may be important in future human
performance research. Careful application of the most sensitive techniques for the
particular skill and purpose being considered will lead to the better understanding
of brain-behavior relationships (Chollet et al., 1991; Druckman and Lacey,
1989).

“Ideal Performance State”

Psychological science has long been intrigued with mental states associated
with an individual's “peak performance.” The “virtues” or qualities that enhance
human performance were major themes of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics,
written more than 23 centuries ago. The empirical study of peak performances in
modern times began less than two decades ago, however, with the work of
Maslow (1971) and other existential psychologists. Using idiographic methods,
Maslow characterized those performances—“peak experiences”—both by the
character traits

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 230

of the individuals who possessed the virtues or qualities of the self-actualizing

personality and by the states these individuals recalled during their best
moments. The concept of peak performance in sports was popularized in the
self-help work of Garfield (1978).
The focus of a large portion of psychological research—as demonstrated in
the review above—has been on the role of behavioral states and how they
influence performance. Indeed, nearly all the commercial efforts in this domain
suggest that achievement of these states is possible (“anyone can do it”) and,
thus, that such issues as character traits do not affect the attitudinal states. In fact,
however, ideal performance state may not be easy to achieve: current clinical
research suggest complex correlational relationships between high performance
character traits and peak performance attitudes (Pirozzolo, 1991); at the same
time, it is also likely that these traits and states are learnable (Loehr, 1989;
Bandura, 1982) through a variety of “training” experiences.
In the rest of this section we review research that used mainly idiographic
methods to characterize the behavioral state variously known as the flow state
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), the peak experience state (Maslow, 1971), the ideal
performance state, the zone, etc. Most of the empirical data collected for analysis
in these studies come from naturalistic studies of everyday work and play. It is
noteworthy, however, that these experiences and studies do not appear to differ
from life-or-death alternatives experienced in the military: that is, intense
battlefield experiences also seem to be associated with the same behavioral states
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Clinical experience with Vietnam veterans in Veterans
Administration hospitals are consistent with other data suggesting that flow
experiences occur with surprising frequency and intensity. Csikszentmihalyi
(1990:69) states that war experiences can be “more exhilarating than anything
encountered in civilian life.”
As an early worker in the field, Maslow conducted hundreds of structured
interviews that resulted in descriptions of common features of peak experiences: a
temporary distortion of time perception; an overwhelming feeling of
peacefulness, relaxation, wonder, and happiness; a total loss of fear and other
negative emotions, including immature defensive strategies; and a complete
absorption in the task at hand. These phenomenological observations were rooted
in mysticism, but they nevertheless contributed to the study of metamotivational
states, which are defined as higher needs for creativity and challenge.
Cross-national, cross-cultural, and other studies of the ideal performance
state have documented an extraordinary concurrence in behavioral descriptions of
the flow state (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Massimini and Inghilleri, 1987). Subjects
report many, if not all, of the following affective, attentional, and cognitive
states: a clearly focused “mind's

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 231

eye” of task requirements; an unself-conscious absorption in the task at hand; an

uncommon intrinsic motivation, which is an absence of goal states in which the
subject is performing for external rewards, trophies, financial rewards, or even
social approval; a strong sense of purpose (appropriate striving); a total
commitment of the “project” in which the subject controls the contents of his or
her consciousness and allows no room for distraction; a feeling of exercising
control; a stretching of talents to match environmental challenges; a time
transformational experience, which is most often characterized by time being
slowed down but also can include a sense of accelerated temporal distortion; a
sense of order in cognitive and motor set schemata; no wasted psychic or
physical energy (or entropy); and the use of “higher” coping strategies
(“transformational”) rather than emotion-focused or regressive coping strategies.
A promising method for studying mental characteristics of high performance
behavior is the experience sampling method (ESM), developed by
Csikszentmihalyi and colleagues (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1987). The
ESM is a naturalistic method for assessing temporal and contextual fluctuations in
mood and performance. It has been used in healthy normal people as well as
clinical populations and in Western and non-Western countries, and it has shown
good validity and reliability (Larson and Csikszentmihalyi, 1983; Massimini et
al., 1987; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Subjects in studies employing the ESM are
signaled by means of an electronic pager worn on the wrist which is activated
several times a day at random intervals. When they are signaled, subjects stop and
describe their thoughts and emotions. The ESM is a highly reliable technique for
measuring the mood of the moment; it does not suffer from reconstructive
memorial and affective biases. The experience of flow can be linked to what the
subject is thinking and feeling at that moment; motivational or goal states;
contextual variables, such as the people he or she is with at the time; and the
“work” he or she is doing at the moment. The ESM has the limitation of
terminating the unself-conscious flow state when it exists, however, since the
subject must evaluate the contents of his or her consciousness. The ESM has been
recently used in efforts to increase awareness of the contextual and psychological
variables that promote peak performance (Pirozzolo, 1991; Pirozzolo and
Csikszentmihalyi, 1991), although larger scale studies are clearly needed before
firm conclusions can be drawn about the utility of the ESM and its efficacy in
behavior change.
This kind of intervention technique clearly depends on a mental health
model of sports performance. As intuitively appealing as the mental health model
is, it is not without serious deficiencies, some of which are detailed above. Most
important are the countless case examples of

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 232

individuals who have succeeded in spite of hostile internal and external

psychological environments, such as in the examples of Bettelheim (1960) and
Frankl (1963), whose works focused on the severe psychological and physical
adversities in concentration camps. Similarly, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
was written in the humiliating environment of a prison (Maddi, 1965). The lives
of Jesus Christ, Seneca, Galileo, Mill, Van Gogh, Dante, Freud, and Toulouse-
Latrec, among numerous others, were characterized by physical pain, depression,
and a variety of other indignities and suboptimal circumstances. A recent
biography documents that one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Lou
Gehrig, was riddled with self-doubt and low confidence and lived in a hostile
family environment (Robinson, 1990).
Another possible explanation for the failure of the mental health model to
predict performance is inattention to complex subject factors, including but not
limited to subject self-schema. A recent study suggests that elated and depressed
subjects respond differentially to positive and negative feedback (Anshel, 1988).
Other neuroendocrinologic and neuropsychological factors undoubtedly play a
role in this complex relationship between mood and performance. Future research
should control for such potential artifacts, including the growing agreement of
neuroscientists on the role of dietary factors on mood and performance (e.g.,
Deijen et al., 1989; Wurtman, 1982).
Two of the most popular interventions used by sports psychologists that
require further research are the cognitive-behavioral technique of teaching
preshot and preperformance preparatory routines and the use of psychological
tests as motivational devices. As discussed above, there is no doubt that
preperformance preparatory strategies exert influences on sports performance,
but the nature and cause of the effects are by no means completely understood.
The mechanisms of action that have been proposed include outcome or
performance expectancies; improved sense of self-efficacy; improved attention
control; reduction of unfocused arousal (off-target, entropic, physiologic efforts);
more efficient cognitive strategies; and diminution of potentially destructive
self-monitoring behaviors. A recent review argues that expectancy has a robust
effect on motor performance (Neiss, 1990). Preperformance strategies and
expectancies may control the path of cognitive events such that subjects rehearse
overlearned motor sequences, channeling their attention and energies into an on-
target, challenged approach to the task at hand, which, in turn, may interfere with
off-target, unfocused-aroused perceptions of threat that inevitably leads to
choking under pressure.
The additional considerations raised in this section suggest themes largely
overlooked by contemporary research on human performance.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 233

They contribute to the development of a broader framework to guide the

research.

CONCLUSIONS
Mental Health and Athletic Success The mental health model has
produced inconsistent results in differentiating successful athletes from less
successful athletes in terms of individual mood scales. However, measures of
global mood have been effective in identifying when individual athletes are
experiencing a psychologically unhealthy, overtrained state. Thus, the use of
global mood measures may be useful for monitoring the potential
psychopathology associated with intense physical training.
Physical Versus Mental Practice If the goal is to maximize performance in
the shortest possible amount of time, physical practice is superior to mental
practice. However, if nonphysical practice time is available or if a person cannot
physically practice, then the small effects due to mental practice can be useful for
facilitating performance and for better retention.
Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions The overall effects of cognitive-
behavioral interventions are small to moderate. These effects will be enhanced if
treatments emphasize: multiple components, (relaxation, modeling, imagery,
cognitive restructuring, etc.); direct administration of the treatment by an
investigator, rather than an audiotape); many sessions; people who have problems
with precompetitive anxiety or concentration; and tasks that are objectively
scored.
Preperformance Preparation In closed skills (the environment is
unchanging), an individually designed preperformance routine, “preparation
ritual” with multiple components has been shown to facilitate performance. In
closed skill sports that involve aiming (e.g., rifle shooting), better performers
have a greater cardiac deceleration within 3.5 seconds of executing a motor
response. In addition, better performances are associated with a moderate
increase (above baseline rates) alpha activity in the left hemisphere of the brain
and little or no change in activity in the right hemisphere. However, too great an
increase in left hemispheric alpha activity is associated with worse shots.
Electrophysiological patterns like heart-rate deceleration and EEG asymmetries
that are related to performance can be used during the preparatory period (i.e., 3-5
seconds before response execution) to assist in determining the efficacy of
preperformance routines.

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OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 234

Exercise and Stress Aerobic exercise is related to reduced physiological

and psychological response and quicker recovery from psychosocial stressors.
Neuroscience and Peak Performance Further understanding of the bases
for performance is likely to come from ongoing research in neuroscience and on
“peak performance.” Recent neuroscientific studies using imaging techniques
have shown that even simple motor processes have complex neurophysiological
correlates. Research on high performance behavior has made progress in
identifying the affective, attentional, and cognitive states associated with such
behavior.

NOTES

1. The iceberg profile does not convey a relationship in a true scientific sense; it is more an artifact
resulting from connecting unrelated points with lines rather than representing mean values with a bar
graph.
2. The 70-80 percent prediction accuracy may be inflated since in at least one study (Study 4) 7 of the
16 athletes did not have profiles that were “sufficiently remarkable to permit application of the
clinical prediction model” (Morgan, 1985:74). Thus, they were eliminated and the prediction analysis
was only carried out on the remaining nine athletes, and all nine predictions (100 percent) proved to
be correct (Morgan, 1985). It is unclear why the seven athletes were “sufficiently remarkable” in this
study. In other studies, it appears that all were included in the clinical prediction analysis, even though
approximately 10 percent of the nonhospitalized population would have mental health problems of
clinical significance (Morgan et al., 1987b).
3. The study of 40 members of the University of Wisconsin wrestling team did not show significant
changes in their mood states over a 5-month period. Although 10 percent of the wrestlers developed
mood disturbance, the failure of the group data to show significant changes in mood disturbance as a
function of training stimulus may be due to the greater difficulty in calculating peak work loads in
wrestling in comparison with swimming.
4. The only phase in which salivary cortisol was correlated with depressed mood was in the
overtraining phase ( r = .50; p < .05).
5. To provide a common metric and thereby equate times for various swimming distances, T scores
can be calculated in much the same way as in the decathlon competition in track and field.
6. Most of the studies covered in these reviews were published between 1970 and 1989. The narrative
review by Greenspan and Feltz (1989) dealt with 19 published articles (23 interventions) and the
Whelan et al. (1989) meta-analytic review contained 49 published articles (121 comparisons across
333 outcome measures). The differences in the numbers of studies is because Whelan et al. included
studies with a greater variety of interventions (e.g., goal setting, modeling, association/disassociation
strategies, and hypnotherapy). In neither review were there unpublished studies (e.g., dissertations,
government reports, papers presented at meetings). This led Greenspan and Feltz (1989) and Whelan
et al. (1989) to suggest the possibility of a “file drawer” problem or publication bias. For example,
either researchers obtaining nonsignificant results are not submitting their research for publication or
journal reviewers are less likely to publish articles showing nonsignificant results than those showing
significant results. This is certainly possible since Feltz and Landers' (1983) review of the motor
performance literature showed that the effect size for unpublished studies was significantly smaller
(0.32) than the effect size for published studies (0.74).

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

OPTIMIZING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE 235

7. Although these findings could be overestimated without unpublished studies, the likelihood of
unpublished studies substantially reducing an effect size of 0.62 is not great. According to Orwin's
(1983) fail-safe formula, it would take nearly 120 studies showing very small effect sizes (e.g., 0.20)
to reduce this moderate effect size to a small one. Since previous reviewers (Greenspan and Feltz,
1989) could not find many unpublished studies, it does not appear that missing studies would greatly
influence the strength of this relationship. Thus, the effects appear to be real and are very robust in
that they generalize across studies using very diverse interventions, research designs, subject
characteristics, and sports.
8. “Open” skills, like those in basketball, football, and soccer, involve constantly changing
environmental conditions such as blocking and faking. “Closed” skills, like those in bowling,
archery, and free-throw shooting in basketball, involve stable environmental conditions.
9. Using the data in Kim's (1989) Table 1, we calculated pretest-posttest effect sizes for each group
with the same formula used by Feltz et al. (1988). This secondary analysis revealed that the combined
relaxation/meditation/imagery group was more effective in reducing anxiety (ES = 0.93) and
improving performance (ES = 0.80) than the meditation/imagery group (ESs = 0.48 and 0.24,
respectively), the relaxation/imagery group (ESs = 0.30 and `0.14, respectively), and the control
group (ESs = `0.04 and 0.04, respectively).
10. These studies used an appropriate A-B-A-B single-subject design.
11. Although the mental practice group performed at an initially higher level than the control
subjects, they made smaller pretest-posttest gains than did the control subjects. For example, the
effect sizes for the pretest-posttest gains for the mental practice and control groups were 0.35 and
0.75, respectively, for firing rate; 0.76 and 1.26 for hit probability; and 0.66 and 1.04 for hit rate.
12. A challenge attitude is described by Loehr (1989) as involving 100 percent effort without fear. A
player with this attitude feels free and aggressive and won't give up or become angry. Although a
person can substantially improve the amount of time he or she displays a challenge attitude, one can
never really master it.
13. As in the Lacey and Lacey (1980) laboratory research, cardiac deceleration patterns observed in
sports are unrelated to sinus arrhythmia since decelerations have occurred with a variety of respiratory
patterns (Boutcher and Zinsser, 1990; Crews, 1989).
14. In addition to a greater amount of cardiac deceleration prior to a shot, Schmid (1989) noted that
elite archers exhibited a postshot delay in cardiac acceleration.
15. A planned comparison t test between epoch 1 (0.5 second before arrow release) and epoch 5 (2.5
seconds before arrow release) during the pre- and posttest revealed that cardiac deceleration was
significant only during the posttest. The means for the posttest were 85.1 beats per minute at epoch 1
and 91.5 beats per minute at epoch 5. The heart rates for pre- and posttest at epoch 1 were not
significantly different.
16. There is debate as to whether the Hedges and Olkin (1985) meta-analytic procedures are
appropriate for studies like Crews and Landers (1987) in which a whole population of studies is
considered. Hedges and Olkin's analysis of variance (ANOVA) analogue involves statistical
assumptions of a sample derived from a population. When dealing with the entire population, the
rather stringent procedures of the ANOVA analogue may not be necessary or even recommended. For
example, they may conceal real differences between moderator variables. In the case of the Crews and
Landers (1987) meta-analysis, subsequent investigation may reveal that effect sizes are greater for
published studies that use chronic exercise and that use random assignment.

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 247

12
Enhancing Team Performance

The enhancement of one person's performance can be viewed in a variety of

ways, as is done in the other chapters of this book. In many situations, however
—in sports, the military, the workplace, to name but a few—people do not
perform their tasks alone; rather, they do so in conjunction with other people
performing parallel, similar, or complementary tasks. The performance of such an
aggregate of individual performers is not merely the sum of the individual
efforts, but some more complex combination, systems that must be studied on
their own. This chapter presents what is known about those aggregates—usually
called groups, teams, or crews—and how to affect their performance.
(Throughout this chapter, we use the terms group, team, and crew
interchangeably.)

RESEARCH ON GROUPS: IN THE LABORATORY AND ON

THE JOB
The examination of how teams and groups perform and accomplish their
goals and tasks has been studied by a variety of investigators from a number of
disciplines. Two of the more prominent traditions of study have been those of
experimental social psychology and of human factors.
Social psychology has dealt with groups primarily as theoretical entities. It
has sought to elucidate rather general propositions about how groups function
from the abstract manipulation of variables, often in experimental laboratory
settings. In recent years social psychologists

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 248

have focused on decision making, and the prototype question has been the study
of how groups arrive at a consensus. The major model has been a jury, which is
an unorganized group whose members possess similar information and who must
arrive at a consensus. The variables most often investigated are group size, rules
of procedure, and other structural features.
The field of human factors has dealt primarily with teams or crews, that is,
the types of groups found in the workplace. The studies are often addressed to the
task of optimizing performance in a particular setting or set of circumstances. The
crews and teams under investigation are often studied on the job, and quite
commonly, the teams are stratified and functionally differentiated. Such studies
often focus on the division of labor among people working in a particular
equipment design environment, as, for example, the layout of instruments and
controls in an airplane cockpit occupied by several people.
These two traditions tend to parallel an important distinction in group
research: the difference between laboratory and field research. Studies in the
laboratory, favored by social psychologists, permit researchers to gain a greater
amount of control over the factors under investigation. They allow random
assignment of people to different experimental conditions and also permit the
standardization, minimization, or the measurement of factors not currently under
investigation but capable of spuriously affecting outcomes. But because
laboratory studies examine “hot-house” variables under usually idealized
circumstances, it is often difficult to apply them in any particular case.
Field studies, in contrast, examine groups in their natural environments.
While some control of the factors affecting a crew is possible, field studies often
must contend with many complex factors. Because randomization of team
members is not usually an option, many of the factors are covaried (i.e., related to
each other) and often not even identified. Field studies often give good answers
about specific questions concerning the composition and work of particular
teams, but because of the specific circumstances under which they are conducted,
they are difficult to cumulate into general principles for group performance.
It seems clear that the perspective of both traditions—experimental social
psychology and human factors—are necessary for addressing the problems faced
by those who must design efficient and comprehensive training programs for
activities involving group tasks. General principles and applicable specifics are
both needed. This chapter attempts such an integration by examining two aspects
of the missions of groups or teams: decision making and performance. Both of
these aspects can be studied in the laboratory and in the field, but they pose
different sets of problems for researchers.

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Although the two processes of decision making and performance are

intertwined in the functioning of a group, they are often at least conceptually
separable. The decision mechanism of a team may be fixed, as in a military unit,
but its performance mechanism still needs to be implemented. For example, a
football team may have a mechanism for deciding which play to call. The coach
or the quarterback decides: if the coach decides, he signals the quarterback, who
informs the team in the huddle. The performance, how well the team runs the
play, is still problematic. Alternatively, a team or group may be able to coordinate
its efforts, but not have a mechanism for selecting and deciding on its strategy and
tactics. It is not known what is the best training regimen for a group that is faced
with both decisional and performance requirements; there is a strong possibility
that the training procedures that are optimal to teach groups to make decisions are
the same procedures that are optimal for producing enhanced performance.
With these distinctions of decision making and performance in mind, we now
turn to an examination of what is known of the differences between group and
individual performances. The object is to ascertain if there are recognized general
procedures that can improve the task-oriented performance of work groups. The
chapter is divided into three major sections. Following a brief overview of issues
of team performance, we review selected studies designed to evaluate the
performance of teams in laboratory settings. A third section highlights some
problems involved in moving from the experimental laboratory to field situations
in which teams perform under pressure: three case studies are presented and the
questions for training and research suggested by each of them.

INDIVIDUALS AND TEAMS

The primary functions of many organizations are performed not just by
individuals acting alone, but by small teams of two to perhaps a dozen
individuals. Members of such task-oriented teams are sometimes highly
coordinated (e.g., tank crews, unit staffs) and sometimes largely unorganized
(e.g., trouble-shooting groups, research teams), the skill requirements of a group
can range from simple perceptual-motor skills to abstract reasoning, and various
combinations occur. In short, teams are as diverse as the tasks that confront them
and the environments in which they operate. Problems of team performance and
the means of solving those problems thus vary considerably, and they are specific
to the task and work environment. Nonetheless, it is useful to note some very
general issues and problems associated with team performance and team-oriented
research, many of which have no precise counterparts in

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individual performance. The general focus is on interaction processes,

organizational structures, and operating procedures that foster and sustain
optimal task performance (or fail to do so) and the basis for training designed to
maximize such performance.
In principle, a team appears to offer greater resources and processing power
than an individual, but teams also involve interpersonal coordination and
management problems that do not exist with individuals. Evaluating the tradeoff
between these two resembles a cost-benefit analysis, although it is easy to
overextend the analogy.
Individual performance can be evaluated according to a variety of standards,
depending on the task. For example, performance can be axiomatically correct or
optimal (an answer to an arithmetic problem is correct or a mile is run faster than
ever before), empirically correct or workable (a piece of a jigsaw puzzle fits or an
automobile runs), and so on. At the other end of a spectrum, intuition or the
consensus of experts may be the only available standards by which a performance
can be judged (the literary worth of a book).
Team performances can be evaluated by similar standards, but in addition,
questions of interpersonal management costs and coordination efficiency have to
be considered. In other words, baseline against which to judge team performance
must necessarily take into account the number of people involved, the time
devoted to team effort, and the consumption of other resources relative to the
level of performance achieved.
A highly compelling intuition from conventional wisdom, which also arises
repeatedly in the research literature, is that small, task-oriented groups are, in
general, “good.” Such intuitions probably arise from the simple observation that
some tasks can only be performed by groups (e.g., lifting a large log), unlike
some tasks that can be performed either by an individual or a group (solving an
arithmetic problem or recalling text). Moreover, when it is feasible to compare
groups and individuals directly, (e.g., solving a word puzzle with a unique
solution), the former is on the average rarely inferior (e.g., see Davis, 1969;
McGrath, 1984; Brown, 1988).
Other perspectives are possible, however, and lead to different conclusions.
For example, team performance has often been observed to fall short of a
reasonable theoretical baseline, relative to the task demands and resources
invested (e.g., Steiner, 1972). An example of a baseline is individual performance
which assumes that a group will do at least as well as individuals performing the
same task. Indeed, such team baseline comparisons are a major tool for evaluating
team performance.
Although a shortfall may not be truly universal (i.e., not characteristic of all
work environments of interest), team performance decrements have been
observed in such a very wide variety of task domains and

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performance environments that it seems prudent to regard suboptimal team

performance as the norm. The critical ingredient in detection has been
development of a theoretical baseline relevant to the particular task environment.
To some extent, the recognition of various team performance decrements
resembles the discovery of decision-making biases in individuals, apparently due
to faulty cognitive heuristics (e.g., Tversky and Kahneman, 1974, 1981;
Kahneman and Tversky, 1982); these decision biases (e.g., the tendency to
overestimate the probability of occurrence of familiar events) have largely been
detected as individual performance departures from a reasonable theoretical
baseline.
The available research, summarized in detail elsewhere, suggests that team
performance is generally suboptimal (see Brown, 1988; Davis, 1969; Hastie,
1986; McGrath, 1984; Steiner, 1972). Before considering the remedies to be
sought through the development of better operating procedures, interpersonal
process management, and training, we consider briefly some examples of
research from various task and performance environments.

TEAM PERFORMANCE
Individual input can vary as a function of a variety of intra-individual
variables, but here we are more concerned with extra-individual factors,
especially those originating with other members of a team. The interpersonal
processing of such input ultimately produces the team action: the aggregation,
concatenation, combination, assembly, or other treatment of information (or other
kinds of individual contributions) underlies the team output. We consider first
individual input issues.

Member Contributions
Audiences and coactors have been observed to influence strongly and
systematically the quality and quantity of individual performances before them
(see summaries by Geen, 1980, 1989; Zajonc, 1980; Borden, 1980). Even passive
audiences can be responsible for arousal in a performer, which in turn generally
facilitates performance of well-learned, routine behaviors and inhibits
performance of poorly learned responses, including tasks that require processing
of substantial information (Zajonc, 1965; Cohen and Davis, 1973). The latter
finding does not encourage optimism for performance environments that require
problem solving or the processing of information generally—especially those
that might be necessary for coordinated team performance in emergencies and
high-stress environments typical of the military, law enforcement, and many
commercial settings.

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If audiences actively respond, or can be interpreted as valuative in character,

the audience-coaction effects just noted are generally exacerbated. Obviously, the
nature of the task and setting, as well as such background factors as sex and
culture of performers, are important in determining performance facilitation or
inhibition. In somewhat more complex situations, the presence of others can be
comforting, and interestingly enough, can even reduce anxiety and other
reactions to stress, especially for subjects who are first-born and only children
(e.g., Schachter, 1959; Wrightsman, 1959). Research on intergroup bargaining
shows that the presence of constituents during bargaining leads female
representatives to become increasingly cooperative through the course of the
session (Druckman et al., 1972). Constituents' presence can either impede or
facilitate negotiations depending on the culture of the bargaining representatives
(Druckman et al., 1976). For example, negotiations over the distribution of
resources between American representatives were prolonged while the bargaining
between Argentinean representatives were hastened in the presence of an
audience.
The literature cited above documents how the mere presence of others can
influence the individual member performance where task requirements range
from simple perceptual motor skills to abstract reasoning (although studies of the
former are more common). Such effects run a time course, and may abate with
training and experience. Unfortunately, relatively little research addresses these
latter issues, although anecdotes from performers and others support the
importance of adaptation through experience.
When several persons act simultaneously, a set of people must in some sense
act together. For a wide range of simple tasks, various studies have demonstrated
that members do not contribute proportionally to the team effort. First labeled
“social loafing” by Latané et al. (1977), the per-member reduction in effort has
been observed when team members' efforts are pooled, and the overall magnitude
or quantity of output is what is apparent: rope pulling, evaluating proposals,
pumping air, shouting, clapping, and the like (see Harkins and Szymanski, 1989,
for a concise summary). It seems that more than the lack of member
identifiability with input may be involved (e.g., Harkins and Jackson, 1985);
social loafing generally appears to be some sort of motivational loss. Increasing
member identifiability or providing a standard for the group to evaluate its own
performance can erode the social loafing effect; see Kerr (1983), for a discussion
of other group motivation loss effects.
Although increases in identifiability and enhancement of evaluation
standards would apparently improve upon these motivation losses, exactly

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how particular techniques would work over a protracted period of time remains
unstudied.

Information Processing and Coordination

Most of the tasks in the audience and coaction environments that have been
studied were fairly simple, and the appropriate theoretical performance baseline
for evaluating team performance was fairly straightforward: team output was
essentially a summation or similar aggregation of members' inputs. We now
consider more complex interactive tasks that require or especially benefit from
interpersonal exchanges of information (solution proposals, decision preferences,
critiques, etc.). Such group tasks appear to be increasingly common in industrial
settings, public institutions, and military organizations.
Early studies of group performance were generally referred to as group
problem solving, whether or not the task was a problem to be solved or some
other intellectual task facing the group (Davis, 1969). Most of these studies were
concerned with individuals working “together” or “apart,” a distinction of some
practical importance in that early German educators were interested in the
optimal allocation of homework between collective effort and solitary study (see
Murphy and Murphy, 1931, for summary remarks). The early general finding was
that, in comparison with individuals working alone, groups tended to solve more
problems (word puzzles, arithmetic problems, and other tasks that emphasized
abstract reasoning) and at a faster rate (e.g., Shaw, 1932). By the mid-1950s,
however, a number of simple empirical demonstrations (e.g., Taylor, 1954;
Marquart, 1955) made it clear that group efforts were not routinely superior to
individual efforts: given the resources committed per unit time, they were in fact
demonstrably inefficient in terms of an appropriate baseline (e.g., Taylor, 1954;
Lorge and Solomon, 1955; Marquart, 1955). For example, imagine a population
composed of solvers and nonsolvers for a problem that has a correct answer (e.g., a
word puzzle). A randomly composed team contains a solver with probability p,
and a nonsolver with probability (1 ` p ). Suppose that interaction is neither
helpful nor deleterious (i.e., interaction does nothing), that members behave
independently of each other, and that a team solves the puzzle if it contains at
least one solver. The probability of a group solving it is then, 1 ` (1 ` p ) r
(where r is group size). It is this value (and analogous “predictions” for other
tasks and environments), that ad hoc freely interacting teams do not exceed and
generally fall well below (see summaries by Hastie, 1986; Davis, 1969). Some
data suggest that even experienced groups organized for task performance fall
below the

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above, best-member baseline (e.g., Davis et al., 1971), but so little research has
addressed groups organized and trained to the task that little can be said about
actually engineering group efficiency in the various contexts in which teams
must perform.
Not all suboptimal performance can be attributed to lowered input at the
level of the individual member, and Steiner (1972), among others, has outlined
the nature of the losses due to faulty interpersonal processes required for pooling
or otherwise combining information and responses into a group product (see
recent summaries by McGrath, 1984; Brown, 1988). Efforts to engineer
improvements in group performance have typically emphasized procedural
mechanisms that both promote discussion and efficient structuring of effort and
enhance personal productivity (see summary by Hackman and Morris, 1975).
Brainstorming (Osborn, 1957) has been among the most popular of the
widely publicized devices to further group productivity—especially teams
engaged in tasks requiring “creative” problem solving. Brainstorming, which is
essentially a set of guidelines for managing discussion, has proved highly popular
with organizations as a procedural corrective and as a solution and idea-
stimulating technique, despite critical research evaluations from shortly after its
introduction. Early empirical evaluations found that, relative to a “best-member”
baseline, brainstorming did not successfully enhance performance; rather, isolated
individuals were relatively more productive (quality and quantity of ideas,
solutions, etc.) (Taylor et al., 1958; Dunnette et al., 1963). However,
brainstorming has survived and continues to be a popular means for organizations
of various kinds to use to attempt to enhance performance of their task-oriented
teams. Recent empirical studies have confirmed earlier research showing that
brainstorming techniques, despite their continuing popularity, do not alter the
suboptimal performance of problem-solving groups (Diehl and Stroebe, 1987;
1990; see also meta-analyses by Mullen and Johnson, 1991). After exploring a
variety of procedural manipulations, Diehl and Stroebe attribute the productivity
loss to “blocking”—an inability of a member to produce ideas while others are
talking, a kind of distraction notion.
It is easy to understand why organizations pursue techniques for the
enhancement of suboptimal performance. It is less easy to understand the
continued popularity of brainstorming, which has been shown to have no
demonstrable value.

Consensus Decision Making: Choice Shifts

Many teams exist essentially to reach a consensus on a choice among
alternatives (events, things, ideas) or a judgment about an amount of

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something. The team output is either a recommendation to another decision-

making authority (e.g., a staff analysis or a personnel committee
recommendation) or its consensus choice is itself decisive (e.g., a village council
vote or a court verdict). The emphasis may be less on the interpersonal processing
of information than on achieving agreement about the correct or optimal
decision.
Conclusions about suboptimal performance (discussed above) are also
applicable in team decision making, but it is worth briefly considering the
implications of another research literature: team decisions under risk or
uncertainty.
Conventional wisdom traditionally regarded decision making groups to be
prudent, or, at least, cautious in the sense that a typical team decision was not
likely to be extreme. Considerable surprise met the discovery that a set of group
decisions tended to be more “risky” on the average than the same or comparable
individual decisions (Stoner, 1961; Wallach et al., 1962). Subsequent research
found that team decisions were often either a “risky shift” or a “cautious
shift” (see summaries by Dion et al., 1970; Davis et al., 1991).1 The ensuing
efforts to identify the basis of the counterintuitive “choice shift” phenomena
focused on the nature of risk and social values, rather than the interpersonal
consensus process. However, such shifts have been observed in tasks devoid of
social content, let alone containing much social value. It can be shown that such
simple and widespread consensus rules, e.g., plurality or majority wins, are
sufficient to produce group-level shifts in decision distributions, given skewness
at the individual, input level (see Davis et al., 1991).
Choice shifts can be a logical consequence of aggregating according to
common team decision rules, and while there is no necessary remedy, it is clear
that many problems come from adopting a single decision or recommendation for
the record. The minority views—that may later be valuable—are lost, a reduction
in information that could later prove to be serious, i.e., any tendency in the
frequency distributions of individuals will be exaggerated in the distribution for
groups.
The more general nature of choice shifts—increased extremity of decision in
either direction—only increased their practical implications; team work does not
protect against “extremism” and may even increase it. In particular, the tendency
of ex-group members also to be more extreme (group polarization) in the
direction of their team's decision, although less extreme than the group of which
they had been a part, also hold implications for practice (see reviews by Myers
and Lamm, 1976). However, as noted above, almost all research on this
phenomenon addressed ad hoc groups whose members lacked mutual experience,
operating procedures, or training that might serve as a corrective.

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Major concerns of team consensus decision making, especially in

organizational contexts, have been the balancing of biases and expertise as well
as the interests of various constituencies, concerns that have no counterpart in
individual performance. A good example of enhancement techniques applied to
team decision making comes from group judgmental forecasting, although the
following discussion could in principle apply to other team tasks as well (see
Davis et al., 1991, for a more general summary). The forecasting of future
events—weather, market share, economic conditions, enemy troop deployments,
population change, and the like—can sometimes be accomplished moderately
well with statistical models, given sufficient current knowledge. However, in the
face of substantial ignorance but serious need, experts sometimes must make
intuitive forecast judgments, often with a minimal empirical basis, and teams of
forecasters may also extrapolate from current to future conditions. It is desirable
not only for individuals to be as accurate as possible, but also for the team
members to combine their preferences in such a way that the consensus forecast
is as accurate as possible.
Among the several methods that have been proposed for engineering team
performance, we consider two that have enjoyed some enduring popularity: the
Delphi technique and the nominal group technique. We do not consider strictly
mathematical or statistical means for aggregating forecasts (or other decisions),
although such conceptual notions produce the theoretical baselines essential for
evaluating actual behavioral or quasi-behavioral forecasts. Although much of this
research has focused on ad hoc groups under laboratory conditions, Janis (1972,
1982) has analyzed a number of actual cases in which group decisions were
sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful according to subsequent
events. These case studies agree with laboratory experiments in particular
respects, namely that faulty interpersonal processes (e.g., misdirected conformity
pressures, cohesiveness) are largely responsible for suboptimal team decisions,
despite the clear possibility of optimal actions.
In light of this well-known effect, both the Delphi and nominal group
techniques constrain interaction with the aim of eliminating or moderating faulty
interaction processes. Delphi (Dalkey, 1969, 1970) exercises elicit participants'
judgments or opinions privately, summarizes these results while maintaining the
anonymity of their source, and circulates the results to all team participants.
Iterations of this procedure continue until individual positions stabilize (see
Linstone and Turoff, 1975, for variations). This technique has enjoyed
considerable popularity, especially in judgmental forecasting contexts. The
nominal group technique also begins with the private elicitation of individual
opinion, but members then meet for face-to-face exchanges of information;
contributions are recorded and summarized by an outsider; members revise own
opinions

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in private; and contributions are combined mathematically to yield a team

decision (see, e.g., Delbecq et al., 1975).
Despite the popularity of such techniques for enhancing team performance
involving consensus decisions, surprisingly little valuative research has been
carried out to determine their effectiveness. However, the evidence to date on
team performance accuracy enhancement is not encouraging (e.g., Fischer, 1981;
Rohrbaugh, 1979; Gough, 1975). McGrath (1984:75) concludes that “neither one
does any better than the freely interacting groups, whose ‘deficient' processes
these techniques were designed to improve.”
In summary, the attempts to enhance team performance by imposing
procedural remedies for nonoptimal interpersonal processes on the path to
consensus have met with negligible success. However, long-term training of
teams has rarely been studied, and even ad hoc laboratory groups have not
received the research and development attention that serious attempts to engineer
enhancement techniques should receive. Although performance on many
different tasks that commonly confront teams consistently falls below reasonable
theoretical baselines, in principle performance increments could be established
through better interpersonal procedures, including training over protracted
periods of time.
Teams, of necessity, will continue to perform a variety of tasks within
organizations of all kinds. Unfortunately, the research and development programs
committed to team performance enhancement are infrequent. An intuitively
attractive explanation for the modest investment in the engineering of optimal
procedures and interpersonal processes, as well as the training of individual team
members, is that conventional wisdom and common sense, on the face of it, seem
to provide such reasonable guidance. Unfortunately, however, the research
evidence to date contradicts much of that apparent wisdom.

TEAM PERFORMANCE: FROM LABORATORY TO FIELD

The review of what we know about group performance is more striking for
what is missing than for what is known. Although the issues can be discussed in
the abstract, a brief description of three actual training and performance regimens
can help to illustrate some unaddressed issues and point to ways in which the
knowledge base could be expanded to productively address questions that are
central to improving the performances of real groups in their work situations. The
first part of this section presents three examples—two military and one industrial
setting: the Special Forces, the Army's Ranger training, and control rooms in
nuclear power plants. The next parts consider the training and research questions
raised by these examples.

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Three Field Examples

Special Forces
The Special Forces branch of the Army uses a squad as its basic operating
unit; the typical squad consists of 12 soldiers. Within each squad, two members
are trained in each of six specialties, for example, medic, weapons, combat
engineering. The squads are trained to work together as a unit, either functioning
independently or in collaboration with other squads as part of a larger operation.
As an example of the first case, a squad with minimal or no support facilities
might be assigned as military advisers to the armed forces of an allied country.
Special Forces squads differ in their particular missions: they may have a squad-
wide special mission or capability, such as underwater specialists or airborne
units. There are further gradations within mission specialties: some of the
airborne squads are HALO—high altitude low opening—units.
HALO is a specific type of parachuting operation which differs from the
mass low-altitude operations of the regular infantry airborne units. A HALO
squad is expected to jump from a high-flying, and, hence, relatively quiet plane,
free fall for some distance, and then open its parachutes at a low altitude. Practice
is needed not only in the individual skills, but also in coordinating the squad
members' ability to land close to each other at the target.
A HALO squad has two distinct training needs: each of its members must be
trained in his subspecialty, such as weapons, and the squad as a whole must
practice in HALO team operations. In theory, these two training aspects, one
splitting the squad into at least six subgroups and the other assembling the squad
for joint training, could be scheduled so that the squad rotated between periods
when all members were together with periods when all members were at their
specialty training. In practice, however, this cannot be done because the
individual specialties have different lengths of training, different needs for
updating and re-certification, and attend training at different sites. Thus, there are
several important issues raised by the special forces training needs.
First, what is the optimal balance between individual training and squad
training? When does a medic forgo more medical training in order to practice
HALO skills? Conversely, when is a HALO squad coordinated enough to allow
its members to disperse for specialty training? How can the plan be adjusted for
the different training needs of the different specialties?
Second, what is to be done when a squad is not complete? For instance, a
squad may have to be deployed when some of its members

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are absent for individual training. What are the best solutions to having
incomplete squads: secondary training in other subspecialties for each member to
serve as back-up for absent members or the assignment of specialists who are new
to the squad to fill in for the missing soldiers?
Third, should squads be kept together throughout their term of service to
induce better team coordination and performance or should component members
be rotated through several squads to facilitate interchangeability and minimize the
disruption of substitute members?

Ranger Training
The Army has a special program of Ranger training for selected soldiers.
Troops from all of the Army's units are eligible for the Ranger program on the
basis of superior performance in their basic and general training and nomination
from their supervising officers. Nominees are subjected to a rigorous series of
selection procedures. If accepted into the Ranger program, the soldiers undergo
several weeks of extensive training in a variety of habitats, such as mountains,
swamps, deserts, and the like. The training procedures are physically gruelling
and are characterized by extreme deprivation of sleep and food and extraordinary
physical demands. Upon successful completion of the Ranger course, a soldier is
given a Ranger patch and other identifying insignia. Although some Rangers are
assigned to serve in all-Ranger battalions, most are rotated back to their original
units in which they serve as ordinary soldiers, but are identified as role models by
their Ranger accomplishments.
There is probably no question that the Rangers are a superior group of
soldiers. But there is a major issue raised by the training and assignment
procedures, that of formal and informal leadership within the unit. A squad with a
noncommissioned officer (NCO) in charge and a Ranger among its members has
two leaders, one explicit and one implicit. It is not known to what extent there is a
possibility for conflict or discrepant messages from these two sources. What
happens if the NCO in charge changes? Does the Ranger assume a bigger
leadership role? Does the presence of a Ranger facilitate or hinder the ability of
the new NCO to assume leadership?

Nuclear Reactor Control Rooms

Nuclear reactors, even within the same plant, differ from each other in
fundamental design, by changes made because of different dates of manufacture,
and by different solutions to basic engineering questions made by different
manufacturers. Because of this variety, at most plants

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there is a simulated control room for each reactor. The simulated control rooms
duplicate the instrumentation of their particular reactors, and, through computer
models, interact with the instrumentation to produce the effects on the gauges and
information displays that would be shown in the actual control room of the
modeled reactor.
The simulation control rooms are used for initial training of operators as
well as for retraining, certification, and general assessment of operational skills.
They are extremely complex: some of the later model reactors may have more
than 10,000 individual displays and a similar number of input controls. Personnel
differ for each reactor, but a typical control room is staffed by a group of four
people—two operators, a foreman, and a shift supervisor.
At a training session a reactor crew will be placed in the simulation control
room with a reactor simulation in progress. Trainers situated behind one-way
glass simulate a malfunction of the reactor through appropriate manipulation of
the simulation computer. The control room crew are monitored on their ability to
recognize that a malfunction is occurring, to work through the requisite
diagnostics, and to take the necessary corrective actions, shutting down the
reactor if needed. Many of the procedures are algorithmic in nature: when a
certain dial shows an abnormal reading, for example, the shift supervisor may
locate a manual that has step-by-step rules for isolating the underlying fault. The
foreman then reads each step as the two operators carry out the foreman's
commands, reporting back information and outcomes as requested. The
procedures are not rigid: the team must make a series of operational decisions as
well come to agreement on the nature of the problem, its seriousness, and the
steps needed to rectify the situation. Each member of the team has a different
function, but the members are interdependent with respect to the larger problem.
The shift supervisor's choice of diagnostic algorithm depends on information from
the operators; the foreman‘s instructions to the operators depend on the shift
supervisor's choice of diagnostic procedure manuals; the operators' choice of dial
readings to report and of switches to set depend on the foreman's instructions.
The control of a reactor involves periods of quiescence punctuated with
anomalous events that may or may not represent serious malfunctions or
emergencies. Successful operation of a reactor depends on the control room's crew
to work its way to a correct set of decisions about what is wrong, if anything, and
what needs to be done.
Observation of a control room simulation reveals some issues that are
generic to team training, decision making, and performance. First, not all group
decision making involves the type of consensus setting usually studied in free
discussion groups such as juries. In a control room, the group's decision is arrived
at only after a set of sequential decisions are

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 261

made by individuals, so that a consensual agreement at the end of the process,

based on the “facts” then in hand, may be flawed by errors or biases introduced
along the way. How does one train crews to monitor and provide quality control
along the way?
Second, because the four members of the control room staff are
interdependent, the result is a “weak-link model,” that is, the team performance
will not be able to rise above that of the weakest member. Thus, two questions are
clear: Is the crew aware of the performance weaknesses of its members? If
aware, can the members compensate, monitor, or double-check that performance?
In at least one simulation that was observed by the committee, the substandard
performance of a shift supervisor, though detrimental to the crew's decisions, was
not recognized by the crew because they had never worked with any other shift
supervisor; they had no basis for knowing a good job by a shift supervisor.
Third, the trainers in control of the computers that simulate the reactor are
able to manipulate representations of each electromechanical component of the
reactor. Simulations of problems invariably involve programming a malfunction
of a piece of hardware and observing the crew's reaction. Studies of actual
control room mistakes, however, usually reveal that in large part, it is human
reaction to electromechanical events or malfunctions that are at the heart of an
“accident.” Yet human mistakes are rarely built into the simulations, so training
is rarely designed to overcome them. What would happen if a foreman asked an
operator to read dial A305, for instance, and the operator reported a reading from
dial A306? How would this affect the foreman's application of the diagnostic
algorithm? What is the sensitivity of the group decision process to such human
error? Such issues are not limited to reactor control rooms but arise in most
command-and-control structures.

Challenges to Training
These illustrations suggest a series of questions of both immediate concern
to the organizations involved—the Special Forces, the Rangers, and nuclear
power plant control rooms—and to many other military and industrial settings.
Should work groups be trained together as a unit or should members be
trained separately and assembled into units? The advantages of maintaining
groups through both training and performance are coordination and the
elimination of the duplicative effort of retraining. However, separate training with
subsequent assembly of a group minimizes disruption when a team member
needs to be replaced and gives practice in adapting to changed groups.

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 262

In groups in which members have different tasks, skills, or functions, what is

the optimal division of training for the members in terms of primary and
secondary tasks? If a team member spends all of the training time acquiring
greater facility on his or her primary task, the member does not get trained in a
second specialty and cannot take on the task of a team member who is
unavailable when the team must perform. Yet too much time spent acquiring
secondary skills may distract from learning or maintaining the primary ones.
How should the time of team members be allocated between their training in
individual specialties and team training when both types of training are
necessary? The length of time for the specialty requiring the longest training
defines the minimum amount of time for the entire team to train or practice
together.
How should those responsible for making time and training allocation
decisions be trained? At what operational level should staffing decisions be
made? If a group loses the services of a member, someone must decide whether
the group can still function, which of the members can fill in the missing
specialty, when replacement members are required, and many other staffing
questions. It is yet to be determined what training is required for the
circumstances to be accurately evaluated and for well-reasoned decisions to be
made.
How should groups whose members have different tasks and specialties to
preserve combine information from the diverse members? Equally important, how
are members to be trained to evaluate the performances of other specialists, that
is, to recognize deficiencies in other parts of the team? When a group has some
divergent opinions or strategies for accomplishing its mission, how are the
divergent viewpoints and minority information to be retained and utilized?
Finally, when group tasks are for situations that cannot be created in training,
such as warfare or nuclear disaster, how can the use of simulation in training
contribute to real-life effectiveness?
These questions are not a complete set of what would be developed from
systematic observation of the Special Forces, Rangers, or nuclear power plant
control rooms, and not all of these questions are new or unresearched. It would be
difficult, however, to give specific answers to questions in the contexts of
particular situations on the basis of existing research on groups. It should also be
noted that the research answers to the questions depend on the products desired.
Some of the answers to questions posed by Ranger training depend on specifying
the priorities of the different goals of the training: for example, is Ranger training
foremost a specialty skill or is it primarily a vehicle for building self-sufficiency
and self-esteem? If research is designed to answer Ranger training questions, it
may serve the useful function

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 263

of forcing a further specification of the desired outcome and purpose of the

training.

Challenges to Research
Most of the questions from the three work examples are not covered by
existing research. In the social psychological work, the experimental groups are
most often not comparable to the ones that exist in the military and in industry.
First, most working groups are faced with problems that are mixed in nature.
They are neither pure decision making nor pure performance problems. The
group's task is usually a variety of activities, involving some decision or
consensus, some performance, some information gathering, and moving back and
forth between these activities in the performance of their mission. The group's
task could be broken down into smaller, typologically purer, subunits, in an effort
to make research applicable to each component of the complex task, but then
linking the subunits back together would immediately reinstate the problems the
disassembly was designed to eliminate. Few, if any, social psychological studies
use the complex problems that are present in any practical situation. It is difficult
to predict how simple tasks combine in a group's attack on complex problems
without research directed to that very issue.
Second, groups in social psychological research tend to be homogeneous.
Although the early literature on group dynamics (cf., Festinger and Thibaut,
1951) examined some aspects of stratification, differences in rank, authority,
prestige, and knowledge are generally missing variables in the research groups.
For example, in an early line of work, Torrence (1954) studied B-26 combat
crews in decision making situations. He compared existing crews consisting of an
officer pilot, an officer navigator, and an enlisted gunner with crews consisting of
the same personnel but who had never worked together. Torrence was able to
show that rank, status, and previous experience influenced how the crews came to
agreement. For example, when given problems with objective solutions, the
gunners had difficulty getting their correct answers accepted by the officers, and
the pilots were able to impose their incorrect answers on the other crew
members. The distortions from optimal performance were greater in the
permanent than in the temporary crews. Important as are these considerations for
real-life team and group activities, investigation of factors such as these is now
virtually nonexistent.
Third, most group studies are single-session experiments, or, at most,
several-session experiments. These temporary groups, together for a short period
of time, are hardly comparable to the extended, long-term

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 264

interactions of actual groups in the workplace. The reasons for this lack are
understandable: the financial and logistic difficulties of conducting longitudinal
research with experimental groups are so formidable as to preclude it from the
consideration of most investigators.
If the community studying the social psychology of groups is not doing the
research needed to answer the questions raised by the observations illustrated
above, does the field of applied psychology and human factors do so? Our
answer is a qualified “no.” Foushee's (1984) examination of small groups in the
cockpits of airplanes is an excellent example of solutions to particular problems.
Foushee's method was to intensively review hours of video tapes of groups in
cockpits; it will undoubtedly provide improvements in procedures and benefit
both crews and airlines using that cockpit configuration. Yet it is difficult to
imagine how to generalize these findings to other tasks for which the specific
items of job performance are very different and the size and nature of the group
does not resemble those in the cockpits.
The tradeoffs between abstract, basic group research, generalizable in
principle but of little help in specific situations, and applied, mission-oriented
research, of use in a specified situation but not generalizable to other situations,
has long been recognized (see, e.g., Mahoney and Druckman, 1975). One of the
early explications of group research in social psychology—Festinger's (1953)
description of laboratory research in social psychology—articulated the issues
clearly. Unfortunately, little progress has been made in the almost four decades
since these problems were presented. The problem is that neither stream of
research by itself gives satisfactory solutions to the problems raised by some of
the complex training needs of the military or of industry. If both approaches could
focus on the same problem and combine their results, much could be gained.
There are several ways such an amalgam could be obtained. One way would
be an attempt to generalize from a series of applied studies in particular settings.
There is useful information in such reviews, but the usual problems of
interpreting results when so much is going on at the same time make application
of the generalizations difficult. Typically, such results work fairly well when
applied to situations similar to those from which the data were gathered; they are
not as applicable to somewhat different or to novel situations.
A better way would be to conduct parallel studies in field and laboratory
settings. One could examine the abstract proposition in laboratory studies and
simultaneously explore ecological validity of the propositions by testing them in
naturalistic, field settings. Examples of this type of coordinated research are rare.
One example is the study of some relationships between employee satisfaction
and job performance during

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 265

periods of change in a work task. A field study at an appliance plant, conducted

by Schachter et al. (1961), was paralleled by a laboratory test of the same
hypotheses by Latané and Arrowood (1963). Another example is the research
conducted by Hopmann and his colleagues on negotiation processes; results from
analyses of simulated negotiation groups were compared with results obtained
from content analyses of the transcripts of the actual negotiations (see Druckman
and Hopmann, 1989, for a review). These studies provide a useful model for
guiding future research on group processes.
Clearly, studies in the field, but with experimental controls—true field
experiments—could answer many of the questions posed by the training needs
of, for example, the Special Forces. If the studies could be done longitudinally, so
much the better. Most of the current funding practices and incentive structures
work against the chances that studies of this type will be undertaken. Human
factors investigators must concentrate on the particular group being studied, at the
expense of designing studies that speak to general issues. Social psychologists
explore theoretical propositions in studies of temporally limited, ad hoc groups.
There are few organizations or funding agencies that have supported the study of
experimentally manipulated groups, over time, in natural settings, despite the
general utility of such investigations.
If formal research does not seem to be of immediate help in solving the
problems raised by the training and performances of real groups, are there
informal research procedures that might be of help? Quite often, in the military or
in industry, training procedures or task requirements are changed. Such
modifications made in the training and adaptations of on-going groups contain
information that might be useful for constructing generalizations about what
works in group training. Lacking control groups, these natural quasi-experiments
are not a substitute for rigorous research on the same issues, but they could
provide important information about the performance effects of changes in
training regimens. Unfortunately, even this information is lost: few procedural
changes are ever made with a rigorous evaluation component built in, so that
actual effects of the changes on performance can be determined.

CONCLUSIONS
Many problems and issues in team performance are potentially answerable
by research, but research on group structure and function, once a mainstay in
social psychology, is now not a major focus of the work. Moreover, most of these
studies are of unstratified groups, making them less relevant for real-world
problems involving stratified groups and command structures.

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ENHANCING TEAM PERFORMANCE 266

Research on group problem solving indicates that teams perform at

suboptimal levels. While a number of techniques (e.g., the Delphi technique,
nominal group technique) have been used to try to improve the group process and
outcomes, only a few of these interventions have been evaluated systematically,
and the available evidence does not provide clear support for the techniques.
The research on group processes has focused in recent years on decision
making with an emphasis on jury-like studies. Some of this is directly relevant to
group training, but it leaves unaddressed many of the group performance
questions.
Case studies of actual groups have contributed a number of questions about
optimum training procedures as well as hypotheses to be explored by systematic
research, but the findings have proven difficult to generalize.
Some of the difficulties of experimentation on group performance are
logistic. It is difficult to find a suitable number of comparable groups that remain
stable over time to compare the effects of experimental differences on their
training and performance. Large numbers of comparable groups do exist in the
Army and other military services, and they provide the possible experimental
subjects and conditions for effective study of team training, decision making, and
performance. Since the military recruits young people who are comparable to the
entering U.S. labor force, the results of such group studies may also have
applicability to industrial and commercial settings.

NOTE

1. The difference between a “risky” and “cautious” shift refers to the choice made by experimental
subjects on the lowest acceptable probability for the risky play in question to be attempted. The
probabilities range from “1 in 10 that the play would succeed” (risky) to “9 in 10 that it would
succeed” (cautious).

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271

APPENDICES

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272

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COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES 273

A
Committee Activities

In order to cover the disparate topics of our charge, the committee undertook a
wide range of activities—including commissioned papers, site visits to relevant
field settings, and briefings by experts—in addition to full committee meetings
and reviews of the available literature.
The committee met four times during 1989-1990, three of them at National
Research Council facilities in Washington, D.C., and Irvine, California, and once
at the Training Doctrine Command (TRADOC) headquarters at Fort Monroe in
Norfolk, Virginia. Those meetings included presentations by Army experts to
acquaint us with both specific Army interest in particular topics and Army
experience and practice:
Dr. Herbert Barber, Army War College
Dr. Gordon H. Barland, Fort McClellan
General John Crosby, TRADOC
Colonel Louis Csoka, West Point
Dr. Schlomo Dover, Army Research Institute
Dr. Michael Drillings, Army Research Institute
Dr. William Fedor, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Dr. Robert Frank, Center for Army Leadership
Dr. Stephen Goldberg, TRADOC
Dr. Jack Hiller, Army Research Institute
Dr. Owen Jacobs, Army Research Institute
Dr. Edgar Johnson, Army Research Institute
Colonel Keith Knightingale, Fort Benning
Dr. George Lawrence, Army Research Institute
Dr. Judith Orasanu, Army Research Institute
Lt. Col. Keith Skiles, Fort Leavenworth

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COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES 274

Most of the rest of the committee's work was carried out through
subcommittees on specific topics. Our subcommittee organization tracks almost
directly to the chapter organization of this report, and members wrote the initial
draft chapters. In one case the work of one subcommittee (hiding and detecting
deception) resulted in two chapters.
Long-Term Retention Robert W. Christina and Robert A. Bjork
constituted this subcommittee. It carried out site visits to Fort Bragg, North
Carolina (September 1989), to the Sillin Nuclear Training Center in Connecticut
(January 1990), and to Vic Braden's Tennis Academy in Trabuco Canyon,
California (July 1990).
Modeling Expertise Michelene T.H. Chi and Robert A. Bjork constituted
this subcommittee. It also visited Fort Bragg, North Carolina (September 1989),
and Vic Braden's Tennis Academy in Trabuco Canyon, California (July 1990).
Developing Careers Daniel Druckman and Lyman W. Porter constituted
this subcommittee. In addition to a site visit to Fort Bragg (September 1989), the
members also received briefings on career development by Dr. Owen Jacobs of
the Army Research Institute and Dr. Herb Barber of the Army War College. The
subcommittee also designed a questionnaire administered to students at the Army
War College and surveyed the Army's self-assessment programs.
Two papers were commissioned for this subcommittee: “The Myers-Briggs
Type Indicators and Enhancing Human Performance,” by Paul Thayer,
Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University; “Army Officer
Career Development: Opportunity for Assessment, Planning, and Professional
Growth,” by Manuel London, Harriman School for Management and Policy,
State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Subliminal Self-Help Eric Eich and Ray Hyman constituted this
subcommittee. It surveyed the market of available subliminal tape packages.
Meditation Gerald C. Davison and Francis J. Pirozzolo constituted this
subcommittee. It was briefed by David Shannahoff-Khalsa, of the Khalsa
Foundation for Medical Science, and Schlomo Dover of the Army Research
Institute. Mr. Shannahoff-Khalsa also prepared a commissioned paper for the
subcommittee, “A Commentary on the Jasper Brener and Samuel R. Connally
Report: Meditation, Rationales, Experimental Effects and Methodological
Issues.”
Managing Pain Gerald C. Davison and Laura Darke, a consultant to the
committee, constituted this subcommittee. Dr. Darke of the University

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES 275

of California, Los Angeles, also prepared a paper, “Psychological Factors in the

Management of Pain.”
Hiding and Detecting Deception Daniel Druckman and Ray Hyman
constituted this subcommittee. The subcommittee made a site visit to Fort
Belvoir, Virginia (January 1990), to meet with Army experts on deception and
received briefings from General Stanley Hyman and his staff. William Fedor of
the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Gordon Barland from Fort McClellan
also briefed the subcommittee.
Motor Techniques Richard Thompson and Eric Eich constituted this
subcommittee. It focused exclusively on reviews of the literature, particularly on
vascular theories of emotion.
Optimizing Performance Under Pressure Daniel Landers and Francis J.
Pirozzolo constituted this subcommittee. It made site visits to the West Point
Academy (October 1989) and to the U.S. Olympic Committee (October 1989)
and carried out an experiment on the effects of mental practice on soldering
performance at the Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (September 1989). The
subcommittee was also briefed by Colonel Louis Csoka, Denny Forbes, and
Colonel James Anderson, all from West Point.
Enhancing Team Performance James H. Davis and Jerome E. Singer
constituted this subcommittee. It made site visits to Fort Bragg, North Carolina
(September 1989), and to the Sillin Nuclear Training Center in Connecticut
(January 1990). It also benefited from a site visit made to Fort Benning, Georgia
(March 1986), by Jerome E. Singer during the committee's first phase.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 276

B
Biographical Sketches

ROBERT A. BJORK is professor of psychology at the University of

California, Los Angeles. He received a B.A. degree in mathematics from the
University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Stanford
University. He has been a visiting scientist at Bell Laboratories, the University of
California, San Diego, and the Rockefeller University. His research interests
center on human information processing, particularly human memory, and on the
practical application of that research to instruction and the optimization of
performance. He is the author of numerous publications and has presented
lectures and seminars to many groups, including corporate executives, college
alumni, educators, lawyers, and physicians, in this country and in Europe. He
served as editor of Memory and Cognition from 1981 to 1985 and has been on
the editorial boards of several other journals. He is a fellow of the American
Psychological Association and of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and
is a member of the Psychonomics Society and the Cognitive Science Society.
MICHELENE T.H. CHI is professor of psychology and a senior scientist
at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of
Pittsburgh. She received a B.S. degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. degree in
psychology, both from Carnegie-Mellon University. Her research foci are
understanding changes in knowledge structure as one learns a new domain, and
how such restructuring effects the way the acquired knowledge is used. Her work
also entails the development of rigorous analyses of talk-aloud protocols as a
methodological tool for

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 277

uncovering knowledge structures of complex domains. She serves on the

editorial boards of Journal of the Learning Sciences, Cognitive Development, and
Human Development. She has received the Spencer Fellowship from the
National Academy of Education and the Boyd McCandless Young Scientist
Award from the American Psychological Association. She is a fellow of the
American Psychological Association and has an invitation to be a fellow at the
Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. She has published
widely, including a recent edited volume on The Nature of Expertise.
ROBERT W. CHRISTINA is professor and chair of the Department of
Physical Therapy and Exercise Science at the State University of New York at
Buffalo. Previously, he was at the Pennsylvania State University and the State
University of New York, College at Brockport. He earned a B.S. degree at Ithaca
College, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Maryland. His research
focuses on understanding the processes by which humans control and learn motor
skills and on determining the most effective conditions for acquiring,
remembering, and performing movement skills. He is the author of numerous
scientific and professional publications and currently serves on the editorial
boards of the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Human
Performance. He has presented lectures and seminars to the Professional Golfers
Associations of America and to many of the national sport governing bodies of
the U.S. Olympic Committee, including the U.S. Ski Coaches Association, U.S.
equestrian team, U.S.A. Wrestling, U.S. Diving Association, U.S. Rowing
Association, and the U.S. shooting team. He coauthored Coaching Young
Athletes and Coaches Guide to Teaching Sport Skills. He is past president of the
North American Society of the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity and
current president of the American Academy of Physical Education.
JAMES H. DAVIS is professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.
He previously was at Miami University and Yale University. He received a B.S.
degree from the University of Illinois in psychology and a Ph.D. degree in social
psychology from Michigan State University. His research interests center around
judgment and decision making by small groups and individuals. He is a fellow of
the American Psychological Association and a member of the Psychonomics
Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the
Japanese Psychological Association, among others. He was a Lansdowne Fellow
at the University of Victoria in 1984 and a fellow at the Center for Advanced
Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1987-1988. He is a member of the editorial
boards of a number of journals, including Organizational

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 278

Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Behavioral Decision Making. He

has presented addresses in both the United States and abroad (England,
Germany, China, and Japan) and published numerous articles.
GERALD C. DAVISON is professor of psychology at the University of
Southern California and previously was also director of clinical training and
department chair. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University and a
Ph.D. degree from Stanford University. His current research is concerned with
cognitive assessment, stress, and hypertension. He has published on cognitive
behavior therapy and experimental personality research and is coauthor of three
books. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the
American Psychological Society and has served on the executive committee of
the APA's Division of Clinical Psychology, on the Board of Scientific Affairs,
and on the Committee on Scientific Awards. He is also past president of the
Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He has served on the
editorial board of several journals, including the Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Therapy and Research, and
the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration.
DANIEL DRUCKMAN is study director of the Committee on Techniques
for the Enhancement of Human Performance, study codirector of the Committee
on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, and senior staff officer for the
Committee on International Conflict and Cooperation at the National Research
Council. He is also an adjunct professor of conflict management at George Mason
University and has been a visiting research scholar at the International Institute of
Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. He was previously the mathtech
scientist at Mathematica, Inc., and senior scientist and program manager at Booz,
Allen, and Hamilton. He has also been a consultant to the U.S. Foreign Service
Institute, the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the U.S.
delegation to the Vienna talks on force reductions. He received a Ph.D. degree in
social psychology from Northwestern University and was a winner of the
American Institutes for Research's best-in-field award for his dissertation. He is a
member of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the International
Studies Association. His primary research interests are in the areas of conflict
resolution and negotiations, nonverbal communication, group processes, and
modeling methodologies, including simulation. He has published five books and
numerous articles and chapters on these topics. He currently serves on the
editorial boards of the Journal of Conflict Resolution and Negotiation Journal.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 279

ERIC EICH is associate professor of psychology at the University of

British Columbia. He earned a B.A. degree from the University of Maryland and a
Ph.D. degree in cognitive psychology from the University of Toronto. His
research is chiefly concerned with matters relating to human memory and
amnesia, with special emphasis on the state-dependent effects of drugs,
emotions, and environments on learning and remembering. Support for this
research has been provided by a University Research Fellowship, awarded by the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, a Killam
Memorial Research Fellowship, and by grants from various American or
Canadian agencies. He is a member of the American Psychological Society and
currently serves on the editorial board of Memory and Cognition.
RAY HYMAN is professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. He
received a Ph.D. degree from the Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he
taught at Harvard University, and he has also been a consultant to the General
Electric Company, a Fulbright-Hays research scholar (University of Bologna), a
National Science Foundation faculty fellow, and a visiting professor of
psychology at Stanford University. He serves on the editorial board of The
Skeptical Inquirer and is an associate editor of the Zetetic Scholar. His
numerous publications include several books, encyclopedia chapters, and
technical articles in such journals as Proceedings of the IEEE and the Journal of
Parapsychology and articles on topics related to parapsychology that have
appeared in both parapsychological and other journals.
DANIEL M. LANDERS is a regents' professor of exercise science and
physical education at Arizona State University. After receiving graduate degrees
from the University of Illinois, he was on the faculty at the University of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana, the University of Washington, and the Pennsylvania State
University. His recent research has dealt with psychophysiological theory and
methodology applied to sport and exercise, with a focus on understanding how
athletes control arousal and focus concentration so as to maximize performance.
He is a fellow in the American Psychological Association; the American College
of Sports Medicine; the Research Consortium of the American Alliance of
Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; and the American Academy
of Physical Education. He is former president of the North American Society for
the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity and the Division of Exercise and
Sport Psychology of the American Psychological Association and a member of
the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the American Psychological
Society. His advisory work has included membership on education and training
committees

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 280

for national sport governing bodies as well as membership on the visual

performance and enhancement and sport psychology committees of the U.S.
Olympic Committee. He was the cofounder and editor of the Journal of Sport and
Exercise Psychology and has also edited or authored seven books and many
journal articles.
FRANCIS J. PIROZZOLO is chief of the neuropsychology service and
associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Baylor College of
Medicine. He received a B.A. degree from Wilmington College in psychology, an
M.A. degree from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. degree from the
University of Rochester in neuropsychology and learning. His professional
interests fall into two categories: one is neuropsychology, in which his research
and clinical activities focus on assessment and treatment of age-related
neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases; the
second is human performance, in which his research and clinical practice centers
around understanding the biochemical basis of behavior in sports with elite
athletes. He is the editor-in-chief of Developmental Neuropsychology ; is on the
boards of several journals, including Brain and Cognition, Neurology of Aging,
and the International Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology ; and is a contributing
editor for Sports Strategy and Performance Report. He is a member of the
National Research Council of Italy's task force on memory disorders in the aged
and an advisory council member of the Sports Psychology Institute. In addition to
writing several books, he has published in a variety of journals such as
Neurology, Brain and Language, and Science. He received the Phillip Rennick
Award for excellence in neuropsychological research from the International
Neuropsychological Society in 1977.
LYMAN W. PORTER is professor of management and psychology in the
Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine. He was
formerly dean of the Graduate School of Management there and on the faculty of
the University of California, Berkeley. His major fields of interest are
organizational psychology and management. He received a B.A. degree from
Northwestern University and a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Yale
University. He is past president of the Academy of Management and in 1983
received that organization's award for scholarly contributions to management. He
also served as president of the Division of Industrial-Organizational Psychology
of the American Psychological Association. He is the author and coauthor of six
books and many articles in these fields.

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JEROME E. SINGER is professor and chair of the Department of

Medical Psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health
Sciences. He received a B.A. degree in social anthropology from the University
of Michigan and a Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota.
He has taught at the Pennsylvania State University and the State University of
New York at Stony Brook. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of New
York at Stony Brook and at the Educational Testing Service, a guest researcher at
the University of Stockholm, a staff associate at the Social Science Research
Council, and study director at the National Research Council. He has been the
recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's
sociopsychological prize and the outstanding contributor award of the Division of
Health Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He is founding
editor of the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology and coeditor of two
monograph series, Advances in Environmental Psychology and Handbook of
Psychology and Health.
RICHARD F. THOMPSON is the Keck professor of psychology and
biological sciences and director of the Neurosciences Program at the University
of Southern California. His previous positions include Bing professor of human
biology and professor of psychology at Stanford University; professor of
psychobiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of
California, Irvine; professor of psychology at Harvard University; and professor
of medical psychology and psychiatry at the University of Oregon Medical
School. He received a B.A. degree from Reed College and a Ph.D. in
psychobiology from the University of Wisconsin. His research is in the broad
field of psychobiology, with a focus on the neurobiological substrates of learning
and memory. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Society of Experimental Psychologists;
councillor of the Society for Neurosciences; chair of the Psychonomics Society;
and president of Division 6 of the American Psychological Association. He has
received the Howard Crosby Warren medal of the Society of Experimental
Psychologists, the distinguished scientific contribution award of the American
Psychological Association, and a research scientist career award from the
National Institute of Mental Health.

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

INDEX 283

Index

A Audience behavior, 251–252, 253

Acute pain, 136, 138–141 Audiotapes, 5, 8, 16, 105, 107–117, 208,
Advertising, 114–115 209, 211
Anxiety, 16, 123, 124, 126 athletic per- Automaticity, 27–28, 48, 224 deception
formance and, 208, 209 deception and, 151 expertise and, 67
and, 164 exercise and, 225, 227 mea- B
surement of, 194 pain and, 134, 136, Biofeedback, 124, 125 athletic perfor-
138–139, 143 see also Relaxation mance, 206 pain and, 9, 141
Army Research Institute, 3, 125 Blood pressure, 122, 124, 125, 131
Army War College, 81, 90–91, 93, 95–96 Body movements, deception, 151–153,
Articulation, cognition, 62, 75 154, 159, 164, 165, 172 posture,
Athletics, see Sports and athletics 152, 160 see also Facial expressions
Attention and distraction, 19 athletic per- Brain, 4, 222–224, 228–229 athletic per-
formance and, 209, 217, 228, 232 formance, 222–224, 228–229 exer-
automaticity, 27–28, 48, 67, 151, 224 cise, 227 hemispheric factors, 4, 19,
deception detection, 159 exercise 129, 222–224, 228 imaging and
and, 227 meditation and, 126 pain modeling, 228–229 meditation, 126,
and, 137, 140, 143 129 pain, 134–135

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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Brainstorming, 254 Combat effectiveness, 5 group perfor-

Breathing, 123, 129, 131, 139 mance, 20, 257, 258–259 imagery
Buddhism, 120–121, 127, 128 and mental practice, 213–215 medi-
c tation and, 129–130 pain, 137
Campbell work orientation survey, 91 Computers and computer science athletic
Cardiac acceleration/deceleration, 220–222 performance enhancement, 213
Chi-gong, 128 expert systems, 14, 70, 71, 73–74
Children deception by, 173 subliminal instruction, assisted by, 14, 73–74,
training of, 109 213 nuclear reactor control rooms,
China, 128, 163 260–261
Chronic pain, 17, 136, 141–144 Concentration, see Attention and
Classification, of deception, 159–160, 173– distraction
176, 177–184 Consensus, 254–257
Classroom instruction, teaching of exper- Contextual factors deception and, 160–
tise, 72–73 164 frame breaking, careers, 83–84
Coaching, 61–62 career development, 87, interference, 40–43 psychological
88 defined, 59 tests, false answers, 198
Cognitive apprenticeship, 58, 59–63, 74–75 Cooperative learning, 33–34
Cognitive-behavioral interventions, 19, Cost effectiveness career development
193, 203–224, 232, 233 athletics, techniques, 15 training, 48
193, 203–224, 228, 233 pain man- Creativity, 90
agement, 17 preperformance prepara- Cues, 34, 37, 216 see also Nonverbal
tion, 19, 191, 193, 215–219, 224, behavior
232, 233 Cultural factors deception and, 155, 160–
Cognitive processes, 6, 19 analogies, 67– 165, 166, 171, 172, 180, 184, 185,
68 articulation, 62, 75 athletic, 193, 188–189 definitions, meaning, 181
203–224, 228, 233 brain hemisphere peak experiences, 230–231
aspects, 228 deception and, 160 D
knowledge aspects, 65–67, 69, 70– Decision making careers, 84–85, 86, 90
71, 75–76, 84, 85–86 pain and, 9, group, 248, 249, 254–257, 260–261
17, 137, 140–141, 142 peak perfor- interactive, 5, 20, 249 leaders, 80
mance, 19, 227–233, 234 reflection, subliminal assistance, 109, 111–112
62–63, 75, 94 retention and transfer Decomposition, problem solving, 68
of training, general, 23, 24 under- Delphi technique, 256–257, 266
standing and retention, 31–33 see Depression, 136–137, 195, 197
also Attention and distraction; Depression Adjective Checklist, 195
Decision making; Learning Diseases and disorders meditation, 126,
processes; Memory; Problem 127, 129
solving

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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psychopathology and athletic perfor- Expert systems, 14, 70, 71, 73–74
mance, 193–203 wounds, 137 Exploratory behavior, 63, 75
Dissociation, pain, 140 Extraversion, 97–98, 100 see also Myers-
Distraction, see Attention and distrac- Briggs Type Indicator
tion Extroversion, 195
Drugs, pain control, 139, 142 Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), 194–
E 195, 196
Eating habits, subliminal suggestion, 113, F
114–115 Facial expressions, 151, 154, 158, 159,
Electrophysiology, 19, 142, 193, 219, 160, 161–164, 165, 186–187
220, 222–224, 23 Fear, 136 see also Anxiety
Epistemology, 130 Feedback, 61–62, 75 athletic perfor-
Error analysis, 74 mance enhancement, 212–213, 223–
Evaluation brainstorming, 254 career 224 biofeedback, 9, 124, 125, 141,
development techniques, 8, 15, 81, 206 career development, 91 coach-
87, 95–99 deception detection, 153– ing, 59, 61–62, 87, 88 deception
160, 188–189 enhancement detection, 17, 155, 165, 187 pain
approaches, previously studied, 4, 6 and, 9, 141 and transfer of training,
exercise and stress, 225–227 exper- 40, 45–47 video techniques, 46, 212–
tise, self-evaluation, 64–65 group 213
performance, 247–257, 263–265 Field tests group performance, 20, 248,
individual vs group, 250 meditation, 257–265, 265 pit burial studies, 9,
12, 121–127, 130–131 pain control, 122–123, 125 sports events as, 193
138–144 reflection and problem solv- Fort Bliss, 92
ing, 62–63 sports performance Fort Knox, 4
enhancement, 202–203, 208–212, Fort Leavenworth, 92–93
218–219, 231–232 subliminal self- Frame breaking, 83–84
help, 110–113, 116 see also Field G
tests; Laboratory tasks; Gateways Institute, 107–108, 109, 113
Self-assessment techniques; Generation effects, 34
Testing and measurement Group processes, 3, 5, 10–11, 19–20, 192,
Examples, as training method, 44, 72–73 247–266, 275 audience behavior,
Exercise anxiety and, 225, 227 stress 251–252, 253 combat effectiveness,
and, 19, 193, 225–227, 234 see also 20, 257, 258–259 consensus, 254–
Sports and athletics 257 cooperative learning, 33–34
Expectancy effects, 114, 115 placebo decision making, 248, 249, 254–257,
effects, 16, 113–114, 138, 141 260–261 evaluation of techniques,
Experience sampling method, 231 247–257, 263–265

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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field tests, 20, 248, 257–265, 265 individ- Interpersonal processes, 185–188 bargain-
ual performance and, 11, 249–251, ing, gender differences, 252 compe-
253–254, 258–259, 262 laboratory tence, 3 decision making, 5, 20, 249
studies, 247–249, 257 leadership, generation effects, 34 leadership, 80,
80, 82, 86, 87–88, 90–94 longitudi- 82, 86, 87–88, 90–94 mentors,
nal studies, 192 military applica- career development, 82, 87, 88 peer
tions, 20, 257, 258–259, 262, 266 influence, teaching and, 33–34
motivation and, 252–253 organiza- Interviewing, experts, 71
tional factors, 4, 20 problem solving, Introversion, 97–98, 100 see also
5, 20, 253–254, 266 psychological Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
factors, general, 247–266 research J
recommendations, 192, 263–265 Jokes, 183
time factors, 10–11, 20, 252, 262, Justification effects, 114
266 training of groups, 20, 261–263 K
H Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory,
Hemispheric lateralization, brain, 4, 19, 90, 91, 94
129, 222–224, 228 Knowledge career planning, 84, 85–86
Hypertension, 122, 124, 125, 131 expert, 65–67, 69, 70–71, 75–76 see
Hypnosis, 9, 141, 143, 206 also Understanding
I Knowledge-based systems, see
Images and image processing athletic Expert systems
performance, 203, 204, 206, 208– Kundalini yoga, 17, 127, 128–130
209, 211–212, 216–217 brain, 228– L
229 individual performance, 213– Laboratory tasks, 63–65 deception, 18,
215 military applications, 213–215 149–153, 155–160, 164, 166, 171,
pain control, 140 subliminal, 109 172, 177–178, 189 expertise, 63–65,
visualization, 109 70–71 group, 247–249, 257 motor
India, 122–123, 128 function performance, 204–206 sub-
Industrial College of the Aimed Forces, 92 liminal perception, 110–111
Insight, 94 Leadership, 86, 90–94 decision making,
Isolation, 130 80 longitudinal studies, 87–88 men-
Instruction, direct, 72–73 tors, 82, 87, 88
Intelligence agencies, deception and, 176, Leadership Assessment and Development
187–188 Program, 92–93, 94
Interference during training, 40–43 Leadership Effectiveness and Adaptability
frame breaking, careers, 83–84 Description, 90, 91

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

INDEX 287

Learning processes, general, 5, 7, 26–29, applications, 213–215 motor skills

100 accelerated, 3 articulation, and, 10, 204–206
62 behavior-learning approaches, Mentors, career development, 82, 87, 88
general, 17 coaching and scaffold- Military applications, 4, 5 Army
ing, 59, 61–62, 87, 88 cognitive Research Institute, 3, 125 Army War
apprenticeship, 58, 59–63, 74–75 College, 81, 90–91, 93, 95–96 career
cooperative, 33–34 exploration, 63 development, 80, 81, 90–96, 82, 85–
mastery criteria, 13, 26–27, 28, 47, 96 deception, 173, 176, 187–188
48 mathematical learning theory, 36 group performance, 20, 257, 258–
measurement of, 13 original learning 259, 262, 266 imagery and mental
and, 26–29, 37–38 overlearning, 26, practice, 213–215 meditation, 126–
28–29 pain, coping with, 137–138 127, 129–130, 131 National Defense
participatory, 33–35, 75 reflection, University, 91–92 pain control, 137
62–63, 75, 94 testing of, 13, 34–35, Rangers, U.S. Army, 257, 259 Spe-
47–48 time factors, 3, 31 see also cial Forces, U.S. Army, 257, 258–
Retention of training; Sublimi- 259, 262 see also Combat effective-
nal processes; Transfer of ness
training; Training Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inven-
Longitudinal studies career development, tory (MMPI), 195
87–88 group performance, 192 Modeling brain, 228–229 deception,
sports and athletics, 199–200 155, 173–185, 188 individual per-
Lying, 17, 106, 148–156, 161–166 formance, 210–213 mental, as aid to
M retention, 32, 36 motor functions,
Mathematical learning theory, 36 210–213 nuclear reactor control
MBTI, see Myers-Briggs Type Indi- rooms, 260–261 sport performance,
cator 18, 193–203, 210–213, 231–232, 233
Measurement, see Testing and mea- Moods, 104, 195, 196, 197–198, 200–202
surement depression, 136–137, 195, 197 peak
Memory, 93–94 expertise and, 64, 69 experiences, 230–231 see also Anxi-
MBTI, 93–94 subliminal self-help, ety; Relaxation techniques
115 see also Retention of training; Motivation career development, 82–83,
Transfer of training 88, 90 deception, 17, 153–154, 165,
Mental health meditation, 127 and sports 172 group behavior, 252–253 medi-
performance, 18, 193–203, 231–232, tation, 124
233 Motor functions and skills, 3, 6, 204–205,
Mental practice athletic performance, 275
203, 204–206, 211, 233 military

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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cognitive-behavioral interventions, 193, Original learning retention of training

204–206, 215 cohesion and organiza- and, 26–29 transfer of training and,
tion, 29–30 expertise, 22, 57 labora- 37–38
tory tasks, 204–206 meditation and, Overlearning, 26, 28–29
124 mental practice, 10, 204–206 Overtraining, sports, 199, 201
modeling of, 210–213 organiza- P
tional schema, 44–45 practice, Participatory learning, 33–35, 75
general, 44–45 prepreformance Parapsychology, 3, 4 deception and, 173
preparation, 19, 191, 193, 215–219, Patriotism, 123
224, 232 retention and transfer, gen- Peak performance, 19, 227–233, 234
eral, 23, 24 see also Body move- Peer influence, teaching and, 33–34
ments; Sports and athletics Personality traits extroversion, 195 intro-
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), 8, version-extraversion, 97–98, 100
15, 22, 81, 89–90, 91, 92, 93–102 MBTI, 8, 15, 22, 81, 89–90, 91, 92,
N 93–102 see also Moods
National Defense University, 91–92 Physiological processes athletes, 201, 219–
Neuroscience, 4 exercise, 227 medita- 224 biofeedback, 9, 124, 125, 141,
tion, 129–130 pain, 134–135, 142– 206 blood pressure, 122, 124, 125,
143 peak performance, 19, 227–233, 131 breathing, 123, 129, 131, 139
234 see also Brain electrophysiology, 19, 142, 193, 219,
Nonverbal behavior, deception, 9–10, 17, 220, 222–224, 23 exercise, 227
148–154, 156, 159–164, 171 coding individual performance, 191
systems, 159–160 see also specific meditation and, 8, 9, 122, 123, 124,
behaviors 125, 126, 128–129, 131 pit burial
Nuclear reactor, control room behavior, studies, 9, 122–123, 125 preperfor-
257, 259–261 mance preparation and, 19
O Picnic, 114
Officers, see Leadership Pilgrim's Progress, 232
Organizational factors career develop- Pit burial studies, 9, 122–123, 125
ment, 7–8, 80, 81–82, 85, 90 decep- Placebo effects pain, 16, 138, 141 sublim-
tion, 173, 187 expertise, 65–67, 69, inal self-help, 113–114
70 motor skill schema, 44–45 order Posttraining interventions, 35–37
of presentation, 44 retention and Postural cues, deception, 152, 160
transfer of training, 25, 29–30, 31– Potentials Unlimited, 108–109
32, 36, 38–43, 44, 48 similarity of Practice, 18, 30–31, 34, 40–41, 204–206,
tasks, 37, 38–40 233 automaticity and, 28, 224
Organizational Values Survey, 90 expert systems, 73–74

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

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mental, 10, 18–19, 203, 204–206, 233 Reasoning, expertise and, 67–69
motor skill schema, 44–45 physical Red Badge of Courage, 137
18, 204, 205, 206, 233 timing fac- Reflection, 62–63, 75 insight, 94 see
tors, 18–19, 30–31, 199 also Self-assessment techniques
Preperformance preparation, 19, 191, 193, Refresher training, 35–37, 48
215–219, 224, 232 Relaxation techniques, 9, 16, 122, 124–
Problem solving 125 athletic performance, 203, 206,
career development, 90 error analysis, 74 208, 209, 212, 216, 217 pain and,
evaluation of techniques, 62–63 17, 139, 143
examples, as training method, 44, 72– Religious experience, 120–122, 123, 124
73 expertise and, 60–61, 65, 67–69, Buddhism, 120–121, 127, 128 God,
70, 73–74, 75 group, 5, 20, 253– 121, 124
254, 266 Repetition, 19 feedback, 46–47 see also
Procedural tasks, general, 13, 23–24, 29, Practice
34, 36 examples, as training method, Retention of training, 7, 12, 13–14, 21, 24–
44, 72–73 expertise and, 66–67, 68, 37, 48, 274 defined, 23 motor skills,
69, 70–71 meditation, 120 pain and, 23, 24 organizational factors, 25, 29–
138–139 retention and transfer of 30, 31–32, 36, 38–43, 44, 48 origi-
training, 23 nal learning and, 26–29 practice, 18–
Profile of Mood States (POMS), 104, 195, 19, 30–31 see also Transfer of train-
196, 197–198, 200, 202 ing
Psychodymanics Research Institute, 109 Retraining, 13–14, 35–37, 48
Psychological factors deception, 148– Rokeach inventories, 90, 91, 94
156, 157, 165, 171–185 (passim), S
188 expertise, 69 group, 247–266 Scaffolding, 59, 62
justification, 114 meditation, 126 Schema knowledge structures, 65–67, 70
motivation, 17, 82–83, 88, 90, 124, motor skills, 44–45
153–154, 165, 172, 252–253 pain, 5, Self-assessment techniques career devel-
9, 17, 135–138, 142, 143–144 opment, 14–15, 80, 83, 84–85, 88, 89–
sports, 5, 10, 18, 191, 193–219, 230– 92, 96 expertise, 64–65
233 see also Moods; Personality Self-concept and self-control athlet-
traits; Stress, human environ- ics and, 232 career development, 8,
ments 84–85, 89–90 commercial products,
Psychological tests, false answers, 198 107–108, 109, 112, 113 deception,
R 151, 152, 165 exercise and, 226–
Rangers, U.S. Army, 257, 259 227 meditation, 131 pain, control
Reaction time, 220–221 over, 137, 139–140, 142

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

INDEX 290

stress reduction and, 4, 131 subliminal 193–219, 230–233 relaxation tech-

suggestions, 8, 15–16, 107–110, 112, niques, 203, 206, 208, 209, 212, 216,
113, 115 217 self-concept, 232 stress and,
Self-report instruments, see Testing 193, 197, 199–202 testing and mea-
and measurement surement, 18, 194–203 time factors,
Sex differences, intergroup bargaining, 252 199, 220–221 video techniques, 211–
Sleep, 4, 122 213
Social factors, 175, 184–185 see also State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, 194
Cultural factors; Interpersonal pro- Stress, human environments, 3, 191, 275
cesses career development and, 83, 92
Somatic Perception Questionnaire, 195 deception and, 152–153 exercise
Special Forces, U.S. Army, 257, 258–259, and, 19, 193, 225–227, 234 fear, 136
262 inoculation training, 9, 17, 140–141,
Speech patterns, deception cues, 151, 152, 208 isolation, 130 meditation and,
163 9, 16, 123–124, 125, 128, 129–130,
Sports and athletics, 18–19, 206–210, 215– 131 nuclear reactor control rooms,
224 anxiety and, 208, 209 attention 257, 259–261 pain and, 9, 17, 140–
levels, 209, 217, 228, 232 biofeed- 141 performance under extreme, 231–
back, 206 brain, 222–224, 228–229 232 self-control and, 4, 131 sports
cognitive-behavioral interventions, and athletics, 193, 197, 199– 202
193, 203–219, 232, 233 computer- time factors, learning, 31 see also
aided enhancement, 213 evaluation Anxiety; Combat effectiveness
of enhancement techniques, 202– Stress, physiological, 140–141 see also
203, 208–212, 218–219, 231–232 Exercise; Sports and athletics
feedback, 212–213, 223–224 field Success, 82
tests, sports events as, 193 historical Suffering, 135–136
perspectives, 120–121 images, use Sybervision, 211–212
of, 203, 204, 206, 208–209, 211– T
212, 216–217 longitudinal studies, Tasks and task analysis concept listing,
199–200 meditation, 208 mental 70 cohesion and organization, 29–
health and, 18, 193–203, 231–232, 30 mental models, as aids to reten-
233 mental practice, 203, 204–206, tion, 32 similarity and transfer of
211, 233 modeling, 18, 193–203, training, 37, 38–40 static dynamic,
210–213, 231–232, 233 overtrain- vs 32 time factors, 69 see also Labo-
ing, 199, 201 physiological pro- ratory tasks; Procedural tasks Termi-
cesses, general, 201, 219–224 nal and Instrumental Values Surveys,
psychological aspects, 5, 10, 18, 191, 90, 91, 94

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In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance

INDEX 291

Testing and measurement anxiety, 194 45 see also specific training methods
career development and, 15, 81, 85– and instruments see also Retention
86, 87–90, 93–95, 96–101 learning of training
and performance, general, 13, 34–35, Transfer of training, 12, 13, 14, 21, 24–
47–48 mastery learning, criteria, 13, 25, 37–47, 49 defined, 23 feedback
26–27, 28, 47, 48 MBTI, 7, 15, 22, and, 40, 45–47
81, 89–90, 91, 92, 93–102 medita- meditation techniques, generalization, 123–
tion effects, 121–130 psychological 125
tests, false answers, 198 sports per- motor functions, 23, 24
formance, 18, 194–203 subliminal negative, 38
perception, 110–113, 116 see also organizational factors, 25, 29–30, 31–32,
Evaluation; Field tests; Labora- 36, 38–43, 44, 48 original learning
tory tasks and, 37–38 similarity of tasks, 37, 38–
Think-aloud protocols, 71 40
Time factors career development, 82, 84, Transition, career frame breaking, 83–84
86, 87–88 deception, 172 experts' U
time on task, 69 generation effects, Understanding, 31–33 of novice, 57–58
34 group behavior, 10–11, 20, 252, see also Knowledge
262, 266 peak experiences, 230, V
231 practice, 18–19, 30–31, 199 Variety in careers, 83–84 in training, 40–
reaction time, 220–221 sports and 45
athletics, 199, 220–221 subliminal Video techniques of deceptive behavior,
perception, 111 tests as learning 18, 149–151, 158, 159–160, 164,
events, 34–35 see also Retention of 166, 189 feedback via, 46, 212–213
training; Transfer of training sports performance enhancement,
Training cues used in, 34, 37 deception, 211–213 subliminal, 109, 114–115
detection of, 156–158, 189 exam- Visualization, 109
ples, use of, 44, 72–73 group, 20, Visual training exercises, 4 see
261–263 inoculation training, stress, Voice, Speech patterns
9, 17, 140–141, 208 interference of, W
40–43 original learning, 26–29, 37–
Wounds, 137
38 overlearning, 26, 28–29 over-
training, sports, 199, 201 posttrain-
Y
ing interventions, 35–37 retraining, Yoga, 16–17, 121, 122–123, 127, 128–130
13–14, 35–37, 48 variety and, 40–

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