A
Committee Activities
In order to cover the disparate topics of our charge, the committee undertook a wide range of activities—including commissioned papers, site visits to relevant field settings, and briefings by experts —in addition to full committee meetings and reviews of the available literature.
The committee met four times during 1989-1990, three of them at National Research Council facilities in Washington, D.C., and Irvine, California, and once at the Training Doctrine Command (TRADOC) headquarters at Fort Monroe in Norfolk, Virginia. Those meetings included presentations by Army experts to acquaint us with both specific Army interest in particular topics and Army experience and practice:
Dr. Herbert Barber, Army War College
Dr. Gordon H. Barland, Fort McClellan
General John Crosby, TRADOC
Colonel Louis Csoka, West Point
Dr. Schlomo Dover, Army Research Institute
Dr. Michael Drillings, Army Research Institute
Dr. William Fedor, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Dr. Robert Frank, Center for Army Leadership
Dr. Stephen Goldberg, TRADOC
Dr. Jack Hiller, Army Research Institute
Dr. Owen Jacobs, Army Research Institute
Dr. Edgar Johnson, Army Research Institute
Colonel Keith Knightingale, Fort Benning
Dr. George Lawrence, Army Research Institute
Dr. Judith Orasanu, Army Research Institute
Lt. Col. Keith Skiles, Fort Leavenworth
Most of the rest of the committee's work was carried out through subcommittees on specific topics. Our subcommittee organization tracks almost directly to the chapter organization of this report, and members wrote the initial draft chapters. In one case the work of one subcommittee (hiding and detecting deception) resulted in two chapters.
Long-Term Retention Robert W. Christina and Robert A. Bjork constituted this subcommittee. It carried out site visits to Fort Bragg, North Carolina (September 1989), to the Sillin Nuclear Training Center in Connecticut (January 1990), and to Vic Braden's Tennis Academy in Trabuco Canyon, California (July 1990).
Modeling Expertise Michelene T.H. Chi and Robert A. Bjork constituted this subcommittee. It also visited Fort Bragg, North Carolina (September 1989), and Vic Braden's Tennis Academy in Trabuco Canyon, California (July 1990).
Developing Careers Daniel Druckman and Lyman W. Porter constituted this subcommittee. In addition to a site visit to Fort Bragg (September 1989), the members also received briefings on career development by Dr. Owen Jacobs of the Army Research Institute and Dr. Herb Barber of the Army War College. The subcommittee also designed a questionnaire administered to students at the Army War College and surveyed the Army's self-assessment programs.
Two papers were commissioned for this subcommittee: “The Myers-Briggs Type Indicators and Enhancing Human Performance, ” by Paul Thayer, Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University; “Army Officer Career Development: Opportunity for Assessment, Planning, and Professional Growth,” by Manuel London, Harriman School for Management and Policy, State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Subliminal Self-Help Eric Eich and Ray Hyman constituted this subcommittee. It surveyed the market of available subliminal tape packages.
Meditation Gerald C. Davison and Francis J. Pirozzolo constituted this subcommittee. It was briefed by David Shannahoff-Khalsa, of the Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science, and Schlomo Dover of the Army Research Institute. Mr. Shannahoff-Khalsa also prepared a commissioned paper for the subcommittee, “A Commentary on the Jasper Brener and Samuel R. Connally Report: Meditation, Rationales, Experimental Effects and Methodological Issues.”
Managing Pain Gerald C. Davison and Laura Darke, a consultant to the committee, constituted this subcommittee. Dr. Darke of the Univer
sity of California, Los Angeles, also prepared a paper, “Psychological Factors in the Management of Pain.”
Hiding and Detecting Deception Daniel Druckman and Ray Hyman constituted this subcommittee. The subcommittee made a site visit to Fort Belvoir, Virginia (January 1990), to meet with Army experts on deception and received briefings from General Stanley Hyman and his staff. William Fedor of the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Gordon Barland from Fort McClellan also briefed the subcommittee.
Motor Techniques Richard Thompson and Eric Eich constituted this subcommittee. It focused exclusively on reviews of the literature, particularly on vascular theories of emotion.
Optimizing Performance Under Pressure Daniel Landers and Francis J. Pirozzolo constituted this subcommittee. It made site visits to the West Point Academy (October 1989) and to the U.S. Olympic Committee (October 1989) and carried out an experiment on the effects of mental practice on soldering performance at the Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (September 1989). The subcommittee was also briefed by Colonel Louis Csoka, Denny Forbes, and Colonel James Anderson, all from West Point.
Enhancing Team Performance James H. Davis and Jerome E. Singer constituted this subcommittee. It made site visits to Fort Bragg, North Carolina (September 1989), and to the Sillin Nuclear Training Center in Connecticut (January 1990). It also benefited from a site visit made to Fort Benning, Georgia (March 1986), by Jerome E. Singer during the committee's first phase.