Task Difficutly Measurement by the United States Air Force Occupational Measurement Program
Abstract
Task difficulty (TD) data, routinely collected by Occupational Survey Program, assist policy makers in establishing minimum aptitude requirements, determining appropriate grade and training requirements, modifying classification structures, and developing promotion tests. Task difficulty is a generic term used to describe measures of task performance and task learning difficulty. Extensive research conducted during the past 30 years indicated that task difficulty should be defined in terms of task learning difficulty to have reliability, clarity, and utility. Research was needed to identify the error resulting from current procedures, as well as to develop collection procedures which emphasize the learning aspect of IT. Data were collected from 103 Air Traffic Control (ATC) Senior Noncommissioned Officers using three task factor booklets: TD, task learning difficulty (TLD), and task performance difficulty (TPD). Efforts to determine the reliability, correlation, and validity of the three measures resulted in few significant differences between the data collection methods. TLD appeared to be more reliable due to respondent's consistency and producing fewer divergent raters. TLD data had the greatest correlation to TPD data, perhaps due to the strong learning and performance relationship of ATC tasks. A task level review supports that each survey method measured its projected aspect of difficulty, however the criteria were inadequate and could not substantiate the observations statistically. While further research is necessary, implementation of a TLD survey format would improve the reliability of task difficulty data collection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA370602
Entities
People
- Lisa A. Boyce
- R. B. Gould
Organizations
- Armstrong Laboratory