Ying and Yang

If you need proof of this then simply open your eyes next time you drive to work.

As with all the articles in this ongoing series, it delves into some educational psychology, or the psychology of how we learn, so tends to be a bit abstract. However, if you can understand the learning process and what it means, then you can take steps to learn both more, and more efficiently. It is how much you know as a pilot that is important, not how quickly you learned it. Experts have long term goals to master their domain of expertise, not a short term focus to get past the next check – motivation and attitude count for far more than aptitude.

The relevant theory is – firstly we have a very limited capacity conscious working memory which does all our processing connected to an unlimited capacity, but subconscious, long term memory. This effectively means that the only way we can access our long term memory is through our working memory. Secondly – all our knowledge is stored in this long term memory in mental models or schemata. It is the size, organisation and interconnectedness of these schemata that determine our level of expertise.

Experts rather obviously know more than novices, but it is important to recognise that experts also know things in a qualitatively quite different way which makes their knowledge more readily accessible. So, in other words, learning is both the process of storing new information in our long term memory, and also the process of reorganising what is already there – processes that are both performed by our limited capacity, and for that matter easily distracted and overloaded working memory.

A brief analogy may make this easier to understand. Our long term memory is like a filing system, while our working memory is like the secretary who provides our access to it. If we want to be able to get answers quickly out of this filing system then the information not only needs to already be filed, but it also needs to be stored in well organised and appropriately cross referenced files.

Both placing the information into the filing system and organising it are jobs that the secretary (our working memory) has to do, and the better organised the files are the better she or he will be able to perform when she goes to retrieve the information we need. A well organised filing system also makes it easier to file new information, which is why relevant prior knowledge makes it much easier to learn.

In summary, learning has two components.

Firstly, it is the process of placing new information into our long term memory filing system. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, learning is also the process of appropriately reorganising and cross-referencing existing information in our long term memory so it is more readily available in an integrated and useful form.

As we become more experienced at a task, many of the processes we use becomemore efficient and even automatic, and so reduces the load on our working memory.

This releases capacity for transferring new material into our long term memory or reorganising existing material. Hence, automating many of our normal work-day tasks is essential for future learning as it frees up the necessary working memory resources.

However, this automaticity also carries the seeds of its own destruction, since once processes become automated, we can lose our ability to consciously monitor them and our ability to interrupt or change them.

Trying to learn a new golf swing or tennis stroke if you have been playing for a while is an example.

To continue to develop expertise we need to maintain ourselves in what is termed an ‘optimal adaptivity corridor’.

This corridor maintains a balance between learning new things and practising them until we can perform them accurately and efficiently, hence reducing the load on our very restricted working memory capacity.

However, this does not mean automatically or mindlessly – conscious monitoring is essential.

As an example, have you ever noticed how professional golfers who get distracted by the crowd in the middle of a swing find it easy to stop, refocus and start again, while an amateur typically will continue with their swing – with the inevitable outcome of a duff shot? Too much mindless experience leads to mindless behaviour.

Learning within this ‘optimal adaptivity corridor’ allows the balance to be kept between learning new skills and performing like a puppet on a string. Imagine what would happen, and unfortunately sometimes does happen in real life, if you turned up for your first simulator session on a conversion course and were hit with an engine out limited panel NDB approach with a hydraulic failure thrown in for good measure. Not an easy scenario for even a pilot with lots of experience on type, but as a novice your working memory would be totally overloaded.

Even if you managed to understand what was going on, the only learning you would do would relate to thinking about ways to murder the instructor (if they could be termed that in this case). On the otherhand, if all you practised was ILS after ILS, then undoubtedly you would be able to fly a wonderful ILS, but shame about ever being able to generate the skills to handle the initial scenario.

Learning is a step-by-step process that needs to be built upon the previous step.

However, it isn’t a matter of sitting there ‘fat, dumb, and absorbently’ waiting for some ‘sage on the stage’ to tell you everything you need to know. This ‘what’ form of knowledge is only the initial step – you also need to know ‘how’ to use this knowledge, which is why ground schools are followed by, and sometimes integrated with, simulator programs. Next comes the ‘when, where and why’ you use this knowledge – the LOFT simulator sessions and line training components. Over the years, airlines have become very good at managing this process – which keeps you learning within this ‘optimal adaptivity corridor’.

However, this is only the beginning of the process of developing expertise, as vast amounts of learning happens ‘on the job’ during normal line flying. As you develop expertise you become more familiar with the operation and learn to perform the normal duties of your job efficiently and accurately, using many of the ‘tricks of the trade’. However, unless you do something about using the spare cognitive capacity freed up by your developing efficiency, your learning is going to tend towards, but never reach, a needed level of understanding as you fall out the efficiency side of the ‘efficiency innovation corridor’. In short, this means you will never reach your true potential as a pilot, which is far higher than most people can ever imagine.

While it is unacceptable to start ‘pushing the limits’ in order to generate more ‘innovation’, there are myriad ways to continuing your learning. Imagining ‘what if ’ scenarios are useful, as are thinking about more complex representations of operational problems you personally or vicariously experience. In the corporate world, management trainee programs deliberately move trainees around for this reason, giving them more and more responsibility as they are able to handle it. Similarly, flying different routes (and types) will help avoid getting stuck in a rut where learning can easily effectively cease.

A large amount of learning and especially the development of the higher order skills that are the mark of an expert, occurs onthe- job. This ‘informal and incidental learning’, which is commonly given numbers as high as 80 per cent of total domain learning in many industries, can be broken down into three forms – ‘fake-it, take-it or make-it’.

‘Fake-it’ learning covers experience with no learning, flying around on the same routes, mind in neutral, and using the mental capacities freed by automaticity to find new ways to complain about how badly your employer is treating you. Finding ways to blame untoward outcomes on someone or something else neatly completes the loop of domain learning death.

‘Take-it’ learning covers learning from experiences as they are encountered.

Provided we get good feedback – either from the environment or from someone else – we will continue to learn. However, our learning is going to be restricted to our personal experiences, and as this experience builds up our rate of learning is going to decay relatively quickly. ‘Take-it’ learning is the way most junior pilots initially learn, where the feedback is often provided by the captain they are flying with.

As experts can both see things that novices totally miss unless it is pointed out to them, and also see things more strategically, it can’t be assumed that both crewmembers are going to learn the same lessons from a flight. This is one of the reasons that ‘hanger door’ talk is such a wonderful way of learning for junior pilots, compounded by the fact it is done in a relaxed and nonthreatening environment, and where scarce working memory capacity is not being used on more pressing operational matters.

Finally, ‘make-it’ learning is how real experts continue to develop. The people who are going to really excel in their field find ways to continue to learn all their lives. Expertise isn’t just about how much experts know, although they definitely do know more. Rather it is about how much effort they have put into linking this knowledge in usable ways – organising their filing system. One of the best ways that this can be forced is by ‘reflection’ – that is, thinking things through after the event when we have no other operational claims on our limited cognitive resources.

This process of reflection can be helped by talking things over with peers and relates to experiences which can be personal, vicarious or imagined.

It is the large and abstracted mental models that experts hold in their long term memory that enable them to perform in the strategic and efficient way that differentiates them from others. Novices are only beginning to form these large abstract mental models, and so have to process all the pieces of the operational jigsaw individually. As a result, they will run out of mental capacity quite quickly.

This, interestingly, is why so many experienced captains find conversion courses so disconcerting – they effectively go back to being ‘educated novices’ for a while without understanding why they suddenly have become so overloaded. But because they already have the appropriate mental models for the operational side, plus a significant amount of relevant ‘prior knowledge’, they invariably do get back on top of things very quickly.

Experience (or prior knowledge) frees up mental resources for future learning, but it is how these freed resources are used that will determine what happens next. If you want to ‘fake-it’, then you will be appropriately rewarded for the effort put in. If you decide on a ‘take-it’ approach, then your level of expertise is going to be dependent on others. However, if you really want to excel in your profession, then you have to take control of your own learning and find ways to ‘make-it’ happen.