Goals and Feedback in Command Group Training

The use of feedback was investigated in five battalion command group training exercises provided by CATTS, the Combined Arms Tactical Training Simulator, at Fort Leavenworth in 1982-1983. Data were collected by interviews and questionnaires. A pre-training interview asked the battalion commander and his staff to describe both their unit and their personal goals for the exercise. A post-training interview explored the degree to which unit and personal goals had been met and the players' perceptions of the individual and group feedback that they had received. The results were analyzed with non-parametric statistics. Some of the principal results were as follows: There was great diversity in the goals of different command groups. Within a group, however, the commander and his staff often had similar unit goals. Reactions to feedback varied widely: although most welcome it, some wanted less. The feedback did not always address the players' goals. Commanders who stated more goals evaluated the feedback as less adequate. This article is from 'Proceedings of the Symposium: Psychology in the Department of Defense (9th) Held at Colorado Springs, Colorado on 18-20 April 1984', AD-A141 043, p645-649.