At the core of every good decision is a strong knowledge base. Making fast and accurate decisions in high-stakes scenarios requires effortless and automatic recall of important information. Despite this fundamental truth, military training dedicated to cognitive human performance is underemphasized in training relative to physical human performance. To address this discrepancy in their training of airmen, the 351st Special Warfare Training Group (SWTG) at Kirtland AFB implemented a tool called Blank Slate with their trainees in 2022. The Blank Slate app uses the most robust learning techniques from cognitive science to help users effortlessly retain the knowledge they need to perform, while leveraging machine learning to track users’ forgetting curves so that users are only prompted to review information when they are most likely to forget it. Of particular interest to the SWTG was enhancing trainee retention of detailed paramedic training. Over the course of one year, over 70 trainees across three different classes at the SWTG used the Blank Slate app regularly to answer questions about their course content. Results from this pilot study showed improvements in trainee knowledge retention from the beginning to the end of their course, and a reduced risk of failing their course relative to trainees who did not use the app. Furthermore, because the Blank Slate machine-learning algorithm makes the tool maximally efficient, these positive outcomes were achieved for less than an average of 40 seconds of engagement with the app per user, per day. These findings highlight a positive development toward efficient and effective uses of technology to support knowledge retention in military training and, by extension, support high-level decision making.

Keywords
COGNITIVE, ENHANCING PERFORMANCE, HUMAN PERFORMANCE, MACHINE LEARNING

Additional Keywords