The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that there are approximately 200,000 in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCA) annually with low rates of survival to discharge at about 22%. Training programs for cardiac arrest teams, also termed code teams, have been recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and in the AHA's consensus statement to help improve these dismal survival rates. Historically, training programs in the medical field are procedural in nature and done at the individual level, despite the fact that healthcare providers frequently work in teams. The rigidity of procedural training can cause habituation and lead to poor team performance if the situation does not match the original training circumstances. Despite the need for team training, factors such as logistics, time, personnel coordination, and financial constraints often hinder resuscitation team training. This research was a three-step process of: 1) development of a metric specific for the evaluation of code team performance, 2) development of a communication model that targeted communication and leadership during a code blue resuscitation, and 3) training and evaluation of the code team leader using the communication model. This research forms a basis to accomplish a broad vision of improving outcomes of IHCA events by applying conceptual and methodological strategies learned from collaborative and inter-disciplinary science of teams.

This study set out to determine how students perceive writing quality in the presence of specific errors. Error pattern was a within-subjects variable with four levels: no errors, superficial (mechanical) errors, substantive (conceptual) errors, and both types of errors. All participants assessed a randomized selection of four essays containing each of the four error patterns. Overall ratings of writing quality decreased with the presence of errors; superficial errors had a significantly larger impact than substantive errors. In addition, participants rated traits about the author of the essays lower with the presence of errors in a similar pattern to writing quality.

Storytelling is innately human, and research has shown it has the powerful ability to "transport" people into a narrative. Literature on the topic of immersion discusses how technology form perceptual illusions to make a user feel detached from reality and create an impactful escapist experience. By examining and synthesizing relevant literature, key methods of storytelling used in theme parks, museums, and virtual environments that are used to deepen immersive experiences were identified. A model of the demonstrated techniques and methods for facilitating immersion through storytelling in these varying contexts has been created to suggest that these methods can be applied to other settings to foster a richer experience for users and guests.

Previous research has shown that an individual's bias can have a negative impact on behavior. One proposed method of modifying such behavior is vicarious (observational) learning. In the current study, the researcher explored the possibility of using vicarious learning to create an effective training video on LGBT bias. The researcher predicted that a vicarious learning video would be more effective at reducing negative LGBT bias than an informationally-equivalent control video. Participants completed the Explicit Attitudes of Sexuality questionnaire (EASQ), were randomized into one of two groups (vicarious or control), watched the assigned training video, and then completed the EASQ again to measure any changes in LGBT bias. The results of the study indicated that the vicarious video was no more effective in reducing negative LGBT bias when compared to the control. Additionally it was found that the vicarious training video was significantly more effective in eliciting new knowledge when compared to the control. The researcher discusses these findings in relation to Social Cognitive Theory for Personal and Social Change by Enabling Media. The researcher also explains how findings of insignificance could have been caused by a selection bias, self-report bias, and/or not enough treatment dosage.

This study explores the connection between hearing impairment, workplace (social, performance, and employer) stressors, and self-efficacy beliefs. The aim was to compute the statistical significance, direction, and strength between specific stressors and self-efficacy beliefs to see how individuals manage workplace stress overall. In addition, the literature review and a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses from six participants were examined to determine effective coping mechanisms. Descriptive quantitative analysis, frequency charts, t-tests, correlational matrices, and ANOVAs were used to calculate relationships between demographics, stress, and self-efficacy ratings. The results show that self-efficacy and stress are negatively correlated and that self-efficacy and coping techniques are positively correlated. In addition, positive work experiences are correlated with lower stress and higher self-efficacy. Amongst workplace stressors, social stress outranks performance and employer stressors. The opposite trend shows in workplace self-efficacy where performance and employer self-efficacy beliefs are greater than social self-efficacy. Hearing loss level and communication style (e.g., speech, lip reading, sign language) were two important demographic factors in determining stress and self-efficacy levels. Effective coping mechanisms that participants reported included mindfulness, and breaks, whereas ineffective coping included avoidance coping.

Visual aides, such as PowerPoint slides, hand-outs, and lecture notes on whiteboards, are often used in classrooms to convey important content to learners, especially in high school and college. When using these visual learning aides, it is important to consider which qualities of these presentations can affect learning— positively or negatively—and how those qualities interact with individual student characteristics. In the present study, we examine the overlap between audio and text and how the effects of overlap potentially interact with reading comprehension abilities. The examination of these potential influences on learning in this study is inspired by Cognitive Load Theory, the Dual-Channel Assumption, and prior research.

Web-based learning resources have been criticized as being developed with minimal consideration as to the effectiveness of the design principles or guidelines used to create them. Extraneous material is oftentimes present and necessary for learners to engage in effective learning with multimedia learning material. Signaling learners towards important information between images and corresponding text has been shown to be an effective method for providing learners a way to quickly find information between the two parts of the learning material. However, not all signaling methods are equally effective in all applications. This study investigates a novel signaling method, using spatial isolation of text, as a way to signal learners in a web-based format compared to a traditional highlighting method and a non-signaled control group. Improved learning performance was observed for knowledge retention using text isolation as the signaling method, but no other significant effects were observed between the other conditions. Additionally, transfer of knowledge across all conditions showed no significant differences either. While minimal support for the effectiveness of isolated text signaling was demonstrated, the statistical means trend across all post-test knowledge assessments suggest that further evaluation of the novel signaling method is justified.

Civilian and military use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) has significantly increased in recent years. Specifically, the United States Air Force (USAF) has an insatiable demand for RPA operations, that are responsible for fulfilling critical demands in every theater 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (United States Air Force, 2015). Around the clock operations have led to a manning shortage of RPA pilots in the USAF. The USAF MQ-9 “Reaper” Weapons School trains tactical experts and leaders of Airmen skilled in the art of integrated battle-space dominance (United States Air Force, 2015). Weapons Officers for the MQ-9 platform are also critically under-manned, with only 17% of allocated slots filled (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016). Furthermore, the leading cause of training attrition has been attributed to lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016); skills not directly screened for prior to entering the RPA pilot career field. The proposed study seeks to discover patterns of student behaviors in the brief and debrief process in Weapons School, with the goal of identifying the competencies that distinguish the top students in Weapons School.

The goal of this experiment is to observe the relation between synchrony and performance in 3-person teams in a simulated Army medic training environment (i.e., Monitoring Extracting and Decoding Indicators of Cognitive workload: MEDIC). The cardiac measure Interbeat-Interval (IBI) was monitored during a physically oriented, and a cognitively oriented task. IBI was measured using NIRS (Near-Infrared Spectrology), and performance was measured using a team task score during a balance board and puzzle task. Synchrony has not previously been monitored across completely different tasks in the same experiment. I hypothesize that teams with high synchrony will show high performance on both tasks. Although no significant results were discovered by the correlational analysis, a trend was revealed that suggests there is a positive relationship between synchrony and performance. This study has contributed to the literature by monitoring physiological measures in a simulated team training environment, making suggestions for future research.

This research evaluates a cyber test-bed, DEXTAR (Defense Exercises for Team Awareness Research), and examines the relationship between good and bad team performance in increasingly difficult scenarios. Twenty-one computer science graduate students (seven three-person teams), with experience in cybersecurity, participated in a team-based cyber defense exercise in the context of DEXTAR, a high fidelity cybersecurity testbed. Performance measures were analyzed in addition to team process, team behavior, and workload to examine the relationship between good and bad teams. Lessons learned are reported that will inform the next generation of DEXTAR.