Comparing Different Versions of Road to Mental Readiness to Determine Optimal Content: Testing Instruction Type, Homework, and Intelligence Effects at Two Timepoints

Abstract

Observations of Road To Mental Readiness (R2MR) mental health training sessions at the Basic Military Qualification (BMQ) over a two-year period from 2012 to 2014, and a series of studies conducted during the same time period revealed problems with the delivery, the receipt, and the enactment of R2MR concepts and skills. The primary purpose of this study was to compare the two different versions (Versions 5 and 6) of R2MR that were recently developed to identify the version that may lead to better receipt and enactment of key R2MR concepts, especially stress management (and Cognitive Restructuring) skills. A secondary objective was to examine the effects of providing supplemental homework booklets for practicing R2MR concepts/Big 4 skills outside of the 160-minute classroom session. Given the statistically significant and robust effects of intelligence on the uptake and application of R2MR skills observed in a previous study, the current study controlled for the effects of intelligence in looking at the effects of version and homework. The study was a mixed methods design with two between subjects variables (Homework versus No Homework and Version 5 versus Version 6) and one within subjects variable (Time 1 versus Time 2). It was conducted over a 16-day period which included data collection at two time points. Four platoons (approximately 200 recruits) participated in the study. Findings show that Version 5, which was shorter and less technical, consistently outperformed Version 6. Contrary to our hypotheses, supplemental homework did not show beneficial effects on learning. These findings suggest that keeping R2MR material simple and straightforward may lead to better retention of R2MR concepts and also that there may be a natural limit to how much learning can be expected to take place in a single exposure of R2MR.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2014
Accession Number
AD1004306

Entities

People

  • Aihua Liu
  • Deniz Fikretoglu
  • Erin Beatty

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Assimilation
  • Classification
  • Data Analysis
  • Descriptive Analytics
  • Health
  • Health Services
  • Hypotheses
  • Learning
  • Materials
  • Mental Health
  • Mental Health Services
  • Observation
  • Psychology
  • Qualifications
  • Security
  • Training
  • Visualizations

Fields of Study

  • Education

Readers

  • Aerospace Research.
  • Neural Network Machine Learning.
  • Psychological Intervention/Treatment for Stress, Anxiety, PTSD, and Related Emotional and Cognitive Health Symptoms.