Learning Cyber: An Analysis of Strategies, Motivations, Personality, and Cognitive Characteristics
Abstract
This research examined the learning strategies, motivations, personality traits, and cognitive abilities of Army Soldiers who attended the U.S. Army Cyber School. The research aimed to identify psychological characteristics of well-performing students in cyber education. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ; Pintrich et al., 1991) was administered to assess each students learning strategies and motivations. These results were joined with other student assessment results collected during student in-processing, including the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (McCrae and Costa, 2010) and the 10-test Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (Jackson, 1998). The 19-week Cyber Phase I course test scores were obtained, averaged, and used as the performance criterion. Cyber students overall reported high motivation for cyber learning and a high regard for study habits and learning skills. Student personality results suggest a Cyber population high in Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience, while low in Neuroticism. The MAB-II cognitive test results suggest that cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of cyber education performance. Findings could be leveraged toward new mentoring and developmental counseling approaches. The quantification of the Cyber populations skills and behaviors could inform future work developing cyber fit algorithms used by recruiters and Army talent managers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1210091
Entities
People
- Camilla Knott
- David Lawburgh
- Elizabeth R. Uhl
- Matthew Deloia
- Thomas R. Graves
Organizations
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine