Skill based performance

Performance is said to be at either a skill-based or a rule-based level when tasks are routine in nature. Skill-based performance involves the smooth, automatic flow of actions without conscious decision points. As such, skill-based performance describes the decisions made by highly trained operators performing familiar tasks. Rule-based performance involves the conscious perception of environmental cues, which trigger the application of rules learned on the basis of experience. As such, rule-based performance corresponds closely to recognition-primed decisions (Klein 1989). The... 

SJT, see Social judgment theory Skate wheel conveyors, 1515-1517 SkUl-, rule-, and knowledge-based (SRK) model, 1019-1021 Skill acquisition, 929-930 Skill-based behavior, 1019 Skill-based pay systems, 911 Skill-based performance, 2205, 2206 Skimming pricing, 675 Skoda, 212... 

Skill based performance - those actions which we undertake with minimal cognitive effort because they are highly practiced. To all intents and purposes these are activities which are automatic or subconscious. 

Skill-based performance involves highly practiced, largely physical actions in very familiar situations in which there is little conscious monitoring. Such actions are usually executed from memory without significant conscious thought or attention. 

Slips (execution errors) and lapses (memory errors) occur at the skill-based performance levels. They are due to the intrinsic variability of human actions with respect to place, force and time co-ordination. 

In Figure 2.6, the slips/mistakes distinction is further elaborated by relating it to the Rasmussen SRK classification of performance discussed earlier. Slips can be described as being due to misapplied competence because they are examples of the highly skilled, well practiced activities that are characteristic of the skill-based mode. Mistakes, on the other hand, are largely confined to the rule and knowledge-based domains. 

Experience and familiarity with the task will affect the relationship between temperature and performance. Experience and practice will make performance largely skill based, and therefore, more resistant to impairments due to high temperatures. This explains why unskilled workers are affected more adversely when they have to work in extreme heat. 

The practical implications of this experiment are that when evaluating the effects of shift work due to circadian effects, the type of task being carried out by the worker must be taken into account. For example, skill-based tasks would be expected to exhibit the performance changes characteristic of low memory load tasks, whereas performance variations in knowledge-based tasks would be expected to follow the pattern of high memory load tasks. Performance on rule-based tasks may depend on the degree of frequency of use of the rules, which in turn may determine the memory load. If these results were confirmed by further process plant studies, it would have implications for when different types of operation (involving different levels of memory load) should be scheduled to reduce circadian rhythm effects and minimize errors. 

The Skills Base in any R D organisation is made up from the talents of the people who work within the group, i.e. it is a summation of their individual competencies. In the first part of Section A the importance of matching the R D Skills Base to the needs of the business was described. Having defined this Skills Base, it is the task of the R D Manager to ensure that the scientists and technicians, who are its constituent parts, continue to develop, so that they are able to perform at the level required to meet the group s objectives. 

In collaboration with testing experts, the PTCB developed a national examination, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Examination (PTCE). The examination is designed to assess the candidate s knowledge and skill base for activities that are most commonly performed by a pharmacy technician, as determined by a national task analysis. 

Similarly, skill-based pay systems reward employees for their breadth of knowledge pertaining to different jobs (e.g., proficiency in a number of various production jobs). For instance, if one person could operate machines A, B, and C, she may be paid 15 per hour (even if she only works on machine A all year). Her colleague may be qualified to work on machines A and C, and therefore he would only make 13 per hour (even if he worked on both machines over the course of the year). As can be seen, pay is driven by the quantity of tasks a person is qualified to perform. 

In a study of troubleshooting tasks in real work situations, Rasmussen (1983) observed that people control their interaction with the environment in different modes. The interaction depends on a proper match between the features of the work domain and the requirements of control modes. According to the skUl-, rule-, and knowledge-based model (SRK model), control and performance of human activities seem to be a function of a hierarchically organized control system (Rasmussen et al. 1994). Cognitive control operates at three levels skill-based, or automatic control rule-based, or conditional control and knowledge-based, or compensatory control (see Figure 4). 

At the lowest level, skill-based behavior, human performance is governed by patterns of preprogrammed behaviors represented as analog structures in a time-space domain in human memory. This mode of behavior is characteristic of well-practiced and routine situations whereby open-loop or feedforward control makes performance faster. Skill-based behavior is the result of extensive practice where people develop a repertoire of cue-response patterns suited to specific situations. When a familiar situation is recognized, a response is activated, tailored, and applied to the situation. Neither any conscious analysis of the situation nor any sort of deliberation of alternative solutions is required. 

Knowledge-based behavior is characteristic of unfamiliar situations. As expertise evolves, a shift to lower levels of behavior occurs. This does not mean, however, that experienced operators always work at the skill-based level. Depending on the novelty of the situation, experts may move at higher levels of behavior when uncertain about a decision. The shift to the appropriate level of behavior is another characteristic of expertise and graceful performance in complex work environments. 

There is growing recognition that most decisions are made on a routine basis in which people simply follow past behavior patterns (Rasmussen 1983 Beach 1993 Svenson 1990). Rasmussen (1983) follows this approach to distinguish among skill-based, rule-based, and knowledge-based levels of task performance. Lehto (1991) further considers judgment-based behavior as a fourth level of performance. 

The degradation functions quantitatively link skill performance to the level of a stressor. The degradation functions can be developed from any data source, including standard test batteries or actual human tasks. Through statistical analysis, one can build skill-degradation functions for each taxon. These functions map the performance decrement expected on a skill based on the parameters of the... 

Promotions and assignments at my company are based on a feir and objective assessment of people s skills and performance. 

Rule based performance - behaviours which require more mental effort and planning because we are operating in less famiUar territory or where a skill-based approach isn t going to work. 

Knowledge based performance - activities where we have little pre-existing skills or rules to call upon and we need to assimilate the facts from first principles using inference and judgement. 

Skills, rules, and knowledge model Models human information processing in terms of three levels of behavioral control skill based, rule based, and knowledge based Models the processes and requirements for each level of behavior Can be used with quantitative models of human performance to estimate task time and errors... 

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