The time is now! Remove the shackles from your imaginative spirit. Devise new skills. And test them in your simulation. To build the simulation, uncover the principles and mechanisms of the skills and sharpen your idea of the skills context. And prepare to program the simulation. Be your own entrepreneur! Make your own job!

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It should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that we aren't omniscient or omnipotent. We don't know everything and can't do everything. Our skills and our grasp of their dynamics are very limited. And old, ineffective habits get in the way of successful change -- they are extremely difficult to disgorge.

This may seem like harsh criticism, but the inescapable fact is that, in one way or another, each of us is to some degree "handicapped." With few if any exceptions, we are less than well prepared to deal with the various and changing problems in our lives. Simply put, we need a lot of help. After all, none of us escapes the grim reaper.

One way to help is to provide benign environments in which to practice desired skills before putting them to work in real situations, an approach that's hardly commonplace today. We need computer-based simulations to let students learn safely, more easily, and free of the chains of the past. (See my tennis games, for example.) In simulation you get to practice the skills one performance at a time, just like in real life. You can even start from scratch, knowing little or nothing about the skill.

Lack of adequate guiding ideas for improvement stands in the way of our becoming even reasonably competent in the skills. Simulations and the science of skills would help you acquire the ideas. We all know how valuable simulators are in the airlines industry and in the military. The same could be true in less spectacular skills. Happily, that view is being shared and supported in increasing numbers in areas across the spectrum of human needs.

With regard to nursing skills, for example, here's what Dr. Jeanette Lancaster, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Sadrie Heath Cabaniss Professor and Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia has to say: Simulation is

Simulation is also being used to examine and test artificial visual perception contexts. For example, research at Geneva University Hospitals (Switzerland) deals with the simulation of artificial visual perception to assess the minimum requirements for useful vision that draws on retinal prostheses. Studies making use of simulation are also being conducted (in engineering labs) to assess the skill level of robots in a variety of tasks. Either of the two groups of studies is just at the very beginning of a long-term effort.

Here's what S Abrahamson, J S Denson, and R M Wolf have to say in an abstract of their article on the Effectiveness of a simulator in training anesthesiology residents in Quality and Safety in Health Care 2004;13:395-397; doi:10.1136/qhc.13.5.395..

(Abrahamson is Director, Division of Research in Medical Education, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA. Denson is Professor of Surgery (Anesthesiology Chairman), University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, USA. And Wolf is in the Department of Psychology, Teachers College-Columbia University, New York City, USA.)

And Allina Health System (Minnesota), a not-for-profit network of hospitals, clinics, and other health care services, is using simulation in a nurse orientation program, thanks to a Minnesota Job Skills Partnership grant awarded to Hennepin Technical College (HTC). Its aim is to fill the need for critical care nurses. A shortage of 500 nurses by 2015 throughout its 11 member hospitals is projected. [In California, also, 50,00 nursing positions are expected to be vacant in 2010.] Using simulation techniques, it is expecting to create smarter, effective training programs to train high-risk procedures necessary to master Essentials in Critical Care competencies. Eight simulation courses that focus on a particular body system cover pulmonary, cardiovascular, neurological, endocrine, renal, gastrointestinal, hemotologic and multi-systems. Critical care nurse-trainees will receive 16 hours of training in HTC’s Mobile Simulation Center.

Also, the Center of Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) is providing support and funding as part of the Center's Educational Development Grants (EDG) program. Using a scenario-based approach, one project explores the potential of a web-based contract management simulator game to teach architecture. The game is meant to help students make sense of the contract management process and to develop their knowledge and understanding of the legalities of relationships between parties involved in the design and construction of buildings. In conjunction with two other internet-based systems being developed by the applicants, the system will give students access to information about the construction industry, which is not readily available from any other source.

In another project, the Curry School of Education produced realistic and versatile computer simulations that approximate actual classroom conditions, the object being to train pre-service teachers. The project developed, tested, and disseminated simulations on both fundamental teaching and classroom management skills. Without such simulations, students preparing to teach get only limited direct interaction with pupils in classrooms. This is a frequent criticism of teacher training, one that this project set out to rectify.

I don't wish to leave out India, so here's a computer simulation study on the Dynamics of family size and composition, with reference to rural India, framed by Professor Chandan Mukherjee, Center for Development Studies, Trivandrum, India, and Professor N. Krishanji, Center for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderbad, India.

The purpose of the study is to understand what produces a positive correlation between family size and extent of landholdings in agrarian economies. The correlation can arise from different demographic configurations, including the rules of family formation. For example, "big landholdings may be associated with large families, despite the lack of differentials across holdings of different size in fertility and mortality, simply because these families may remain undivided for long periods." Absent conclusive data, "this study sets up a computer simulation model for studying the results of alternative demographic configurations."

Nor do I wish to be shortsighted and leave ophthalmology out of the simulation picture. An article by Scott Shepard in the Memphis Business Journal discusses the use of a simulator to perform surgery. Excerpts from the article follow:

I agree wholeheartedly. The same could be said for travelers on busses or trains, patients in a dental chair or in an emergency hospital ward, or any other high-risk situation, when the delivery personnel aren't adequately prepared and could create havoc. And who is more vulnerable than a child of a high school dropout? Good child care demands many skills and much benign environment training.

And in sports -- an area of special interest for me, along with the stock market -- here's a project that simulates ice hockey, A Simulation for Learning Strategy & Perceptual Skill in Hockey, by D.E. Mulligan, M.W. Dobson, and J. McCracken (Canada). ACTA Press. The authors' abstract of the work follows.

Samples of what is going on m the real world of computers, these scenarios paint a picture of the growing use of scientific simulation as a seriously important way to improve our skills and deal more effectively with our many problems. The Science of Skills is a brand new and wide-open field of study and has a high long-term job creation potential.

Even today, with the new administration of President Barack Obama and his $trillion stimulus package, together with his desire to beef up our skills, there is good reason to believe that more support in the form of grants will become available in this area. Use of my books and tutorial games could help you put together grant proposals to acquire some of the funds. Studies in visual perception skills should be of special interest, particularly in workaround skills for persons with visual disorders of one sort or another. Let me know if I can be of assistance.

As a matter of fact I explore more examples in this series, including my own projects. In this connection I should say that my emphasis is on the dynamics of the various skills in their contexts and I deal mostly with the dynamics of sports applications, with a primary focus on tennis, and more specifically on the visual perception of trajectories in tennis. To this end I've developing ten computer-based tutorial games, one each for different tennis shots. The games are now available for use in effectiveness studies. (Also available is an introductory game to help you with the basic set). You might wish to pursue projects of a similar nature. In either of the examples, mine or otherwise, the concern is with real-life situations, existing problems, and ways to solve them.

I have to say, however -- in order to be "up front" with you in the telling -- that all simulations fall short in detail of the portrayed real situation structure and performance dynamics, much as a painting is always less detailed (but not necessarily less revealing) than the subject being painted. Even so, you can get as close as you want or need to be in the depiction to the solid reality of special interest. You can also work at the sparse end of the real-properties scale of projection, where only the most select properties are to be found (in which case the portrayal is more like a line drawing than a painting). It is at this end of the spectrum that my own game simulations, Select 'n Shoot, are to be found -- they are more literally like line drawings than swaths of paint on a canvas.

When using simulations, too, you can also stop the action at any time and repeat events as often as you like in exactly the same way, something you can never do in real life. Furthermore, when conducting studies, you aren't using pertinent skill musculature in the simulation, so you can't be caught up in old habit structures. Plus you can get plenty of feedback, again something not available in the real world situation. And the studies make it possible to more easily generate the ideas (guides) you need to improve your skills. That's a huge gain to counter the loss in detail and realism.

It should be evident that perception is a huge and most important field of study, since it is involved in every possible aspect of human life, hence in every skill. Anything that we engage in requires use of the faculty of perception in one or another of its various forms. Visual perception, as perhaps the principle mode, and the main subject of this series of books, is itself a field of study that is almost as extensive in its scope. The study of visual disorders and workaround skills to compensate for the disorders thus becomes extremely important, as well.

I personally use computer simulation as the primary exploratory vehicle in my studies of the visual-motor processes. But there is much more to be said in other respects about such studies. For example, tracking the movement of the eyes is an important research program. At the Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces, in Banif, Canada, for example, researchers are applying non-invasive techniques to track the motion of the visual gaze of subjects. This is useful in helping to assess the direction, and possibly even the intensity, of visual attention. This could be an important step in helping to improve the quality and control of attention.

Other research aimed at improving the perception of individuals suffering from visual disorders is also being carried out. For instance, at the Laboratory for Research into Autism, in the Department of Experimental Psychology, at the University of Cambridge, inquiries are being made to see if autistic patients exhibit fundamental differences from the normal in visual perception.

Study projects are also being carried out to examine the effects on visual perception of a variety of other types of influences. Among them are studies of the influences of specific religious backgrounds and the influences of "runaway" imagination. Studies by Bernhard Hommel from Vanderbilt University, for instance, have also shown that imagery has its distinct effects on vision.

With the number of senior citizens expected to increase significantly over the coming years, vision difficulties are bound to increase, creating a major health predicament. One age-related problem is macular degeneration, a retinal disease causing the progressive loss of macular vision, typically in people over 60 years of age. In this connection the article by Anouk Déruaz, Avinoam B Safran, Markus Sutter and René M. Müri for the Clinical Medicine: Geriatrics journal, 2008:2 21-30, is pertinent. The article deals with the changes in visual perception due to macular degeneration.

It's bad enough that seniors have to put up with low vision as measured by viewing wall charts at the doctor's office, but measures get even worse in the real world outside the doctor's office. What may seem to be nominally OK inside, can turn decidedly into legal blindness outside, where viewing efficiency deteriorates significantly. Simulations of these real-world conditions, possibly played as games, could be helpful here.

For the same reason, auto traffic problems are bound to increase in number and severity, the visual perception downgrade with aging inevitably creating more traffic accidents. In this connection, two articles are presented. One, on the use of video games to test the eyesight of seniors, deals with studies (by Allstate) to identify safe, older drivers. Posted by Russell Miyaki, the article argues for the use of video games to help distinguish good from not so good driver quality. "The better the player, the better the driver," goes the argument. The better game players could get important insurance discounts and the poorer players could be directed to traffic schools for special training to compensate for possible disorders or degradation of function.

In a second report, posted in IEEE 2001, a proposal is offered to improve vehicle spacing in road traffic by heightened license plate reading, in that way, again, helping to improve traffic flow and reduce the number and severity of accidents. The approach is to compute the instantaneous speed of vehicles by using monocular as well as binocular measuring system configurations.

Not to be outdone in perception, Claudio Castellanos Sánchez, Frédéric Alexandre, and Bernard Girau are using data from neuroscience to implement cortex-like maps on an autonomous robot, allowing it to detect and analyze motion in the external world. Visual perception of motion is deemed to be a major challenge in machine perception research, because it's used in so many tasks. Among the tasks the authors include "path-finding, perception of shape from motion, depth segmentation, estimation of coincidence (time to collision, time to task achievement), determination of motion direction and speed, perception of gestures, orientation and movement control and determination of the three-dimensional structure of the environment." That's quite a package of tasks.

In another important area of study, Shinsuke Shimojo, Michael Paradiso, and Ichiro Fujita, writing for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point up the value of recent findings of neurological research that relate brain and mind to visual perception. This could be an important step in establishing the workings of visual perception.

It is quite reasonable to believe that studies in this area can be formulated as simulation-based games and used, for example, to test the skill level of individuals and to find ways to extend their competence.

For more details of these studies, see Book 8: Vision Research.

This nine-part treatise (Science of Skills) is dedicated to the use of computer simulation to help solve (or at least lighten) some of the many problems we face. My emphasis is on ball sports, and I pay special attention to tennis, because I draw on the tennis model to study the other subjects. I focus on (visual) perception and this naturally leads to the distinction between objectivity and subjectivity, the difference between what really is true in any given situation and what is perceived to be true. We will look at the distinction in more detail as we move along.

The point is, practically all of our experiences are subjective, with the rare exception that we get some small thing absolutely right. What we know about most things is quite limited. I mean to include what we see about ourselves, our neighbors, the political scene, local and general business conditions, the stock market, sports and sports figures, radio and television, the sciences, the arts, the humanities, and on and on. Our views are preeminently subjective and strongly influenced by our background of prior experience, personal biases and natural tendencies, our level of learning, and our vast habit structure. This makes dealing with our problems challenging, if not precarious.

To solve any problem, we first have to know what it is, we have to be aware of what situation we are in. This alone is no mean task. But then we have to act, and there are many possible responses, adding to the difficulties. Take the case of a commander of a torpedo boat on a mission. For the mission to be successful, the commander has to know what the target is and must fully understand the purpose of the mission. Awareness of the environmental conditions in which he is to operate is essential. Together, these facts determine how the commander should act for best results. Studying the problem in a simulation environment beforehand can be a great help in working out the difficulties.

As a particularly significant and very complex current example, we have a national (and even world!) economic and financial mess that will likely take much time and effort to resolve -- to produce a stable and long-term solution. Somehow we have to begin to develop a rational approach to deal with the problem.

The same is true for everyday ordinary situations, though they are much smaller in scope and may often be too mundane to be highlighted. Learning to drive a car, for instance, isn't a trivial problem, especially considering the number of accidents and fatalities that occur annually. Traffic conditions can certainly be improved. Both perceptual and motor problems are involved and can be strengthened through simulation training -- using a computer to learn to drive can reduce the risks before going on the road.

In any context many factors usually have to be considered. Many of life's variables are involved. Keeping all the variables within acceptable limits is highly unlikely -- we need every bit of help we can get just to survive. Yet we still have to keep going. More often than not this leads to poor results. It also seems to define our lot in life, our normal lack of preparedness as living agents. Indeed, we begin with our problems very early on.

You need only look at the early days of the neonate to see how aggressively uninformed and damaging life's impetus can be. All of us, without exception, have been through the mill, getting pushed and pulled, squeezed and tortured, ending up in a strange new world of things. In those moments we likely have no idea what is happening and only a vague awareness of self, to which the something is happening. Likely too we have only a weak grasp, if any at all, of the distinction between self and caregiver. We can, nevertheless, imagine this infant -- you or me -- struggling to survive and searching (without knowing it is searching) for answers to account for the appearance of all the new and strange and frightening impressions of the world. Over the hours, days and weeks, "food" appears and "hunger pangs and other discomforts" are assuaged for a time, again with no sense to the newborn of what is occurring. Meanwhile, brain matter, neural tissue, and muscle and bone are rapidly growing, and possibly more awareness and recognition of self is creeping in. Distinctions very likely begin to appear. Frantic behavior somehow gets organized and skills begin to take shape, more or less at random but with overt desperate concentration. It can hardly be a very happy or efficient start. The skills appear with no sense of purpose, no awareness of right or wrong, or good or bad, or effectiveness or ineffectiveness. They are destined to be deeply engrained in the psyche of this new infant and to lie at the center of the infant's perceptual-motor processes, first as child, and later even as adult. As a species we may have gotten a lot smarter and come a long way with new ideas and new gadgets since the days of the caveman. But we still begin life with a blank slate of skills, completely dependent on others and almost if not totally ignorant of self and our surroundings. There is only potential. And the situation doesn't improve all that much over the remaining years of our lives.

Starting from scratch, as it were, a great deal has to be learned about a skill before it can be developed expertly. Its dynamics can be very complex and you have to know it inside out and backwards. You have to know what forces to apply and when and how much. Context is telling, here, because you have to see what the conditions are and choose the best response you can. Context conditions are important because they determine much if not all of the why and when and how much of the skills. Improved perception certainly sheds more light on a problem, as well as on the related skill, because it brings new ideas to bear on the world, to make more sense of it. So it can pay to wait to learn more.

But you can't wait indefinitely. You can't just wait until you learn all there is to know about a situation before taking action. It isn't practical, because there's always more to discover -- facts are unending. Nor does time stop and wait for you to get ready. In an interactive process, you perceive and act, and the world responds, and new perception leads to new insight and new action. Perception is an investigative skill, and early on, poorly executed. The bus doesn't stop rolling, but you still have to scramble aboard. You try to learn the truth of your turf and make your decisions. You need to see what you should do. Learning in a simulated environment can help, because it provides a way to see conditions more clearly before having to climb on the bus.

That goes for this book series, as well. I try to cover every aspect of the subject, but it's just a start. The task is open-ended. We need more science and understanding to extend our skills. There is much more to develop, much more to learn. Eventually, very likely, new tools will be uncovered. New techniques will be formulated, tested, and found to be successful. And surprising new applications will be developed. So perhaps it's best to treat the work as a summary to date. No matter how broad-scope I make it, it will still only be a short step along an otherwise very long and winding road.

My series on the Science of Skills contains the following books:

Science of Skills deals with the nature of skills, their dynamics in context, and how to study and improve them, drawing significantly on the various sciences and techniques in computer-based simulation. The material continues the subject of my introductory book, Simulations for Skills Training, published by Educational Technology Publications, and my Web site, The Cave: Your Center for the Science of Skills, to be found at:

http://home1.gte.net/simres/

In the series I take a closer look at the need for more powerful skills study and training methods. I develop computer-based tools and techniques in simulation to attempt to generate answers to a wide range of relevant questions across the board but mostly in sports. I focus mainly on tennis, because I view it as a prototype vehicle for the study and training of skills, generally.

The work is intimately related to human movement studies, sport science, biomechanics, and kinesiology, mainly because of its connection with sports. But it puts much more emphasis on perception -- particularly visual perception. It also strives to formulate equations of motion for the dynamics of skills in their natural contexts, and incorporates science-based simulations to represent and study the skills in context. Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers, which is to say that a great deal more scientific laboratory and field research is required for the questions to be more fruitful.

From optics to mental maps, Book 2 of the series deals with the physical, physiological, psychological, and social nature of the biomechanics of skills and the environments in which the skills are performed. Book 3 covers the computer-based tools and techniques, including simulation, to study the skills and develop better ways to train them. Book 4 explains how to build optimization studies of the skills using simulation. Book 5 lays out the visual perception skills to be found in golf. Book 6 explores the biomechanics of skills involved in the tracking, interception, and hitting of a ball in the game of tennis. Book 7 gives you an overall picture of the games in my Select 'n Shoot program package. Book 8 reviews a number of current research projects in visual perception. And Book 9 presents references in the science of skills, including visual perception, skill acquisition, sport science, computer simulation, and basic related academic subjects.

In developing the ideas, I drew largely from my work in the study and training of skills in tennis, which began with a Ph.D. thesis on tracking and interception of a tennis ball hit by an opponent. I see tennis as representative of many other skill groups that can be studied and trained using computer simulation. In fact, the underlying model of the explorations is the trajectory-tracking model of tennis. It is also the model for my tutorial games. The trajectory becomes most critical in the studies, in that it is the reason for hitting the ball, just as the trajectory is most critical in golf, hockey, football, and many other activities.

Broadly disciplinary, the series:

• Examines general characteristics of visual perception skills and the natural contexts in which the skills are performed.
• Lays out the tools and techniques that could be used to study the skills and learn how they might best be trained.
• Develops the notion of a computer-supported, group-based approach to the study and training of skills.
• Distinguishes among simulations for study, simulations for group-based training, simulators for individual training, and virtual reality based training.
• Shows how to perform optimization studies of skills and presents several examples of the procedure.
• Discusses visual perception requirements and problems in sports (mainly golf and tennis) and carries the ideas over to everyday experience.
• Reviews my development to date of simulation-based study programs (beginning with my doctoral research on tracking and interception skills in tennis and leading to ten game-format programs to study the principle tennis hitting skills).
• Examines the benefits and difficulties of simulation as a method of learning.
• Discusses my meaning and use of scientific and personalized simulations (exemplified by my tennis hitting programs).
• Reviews the mechanisms for providing feedback information regarding the trajectories produced in a training session at the tennis court.
• Explains what I mean by the context of skills and distinguishes between its objective and subjective aspects.
• Discusses the underlying natures of golf and tennis, looks at standard learning techniques, and goes over some of the associated problems, the kind of thing you would do with other projects.
• Discusses the difference between the abstract (mathematical) model that underlies simulation of the skills context and the concrete (empirical), one-shot-at-a-time nature of the action at the court as experienced (perceived) by the player/student.
• Draws on the differences between theoretical models and empirical evidence (reality and reality check) as a basis for improved study and training of skills.
• Develops abstract properties of ball trajectories and the motion dynamics of the ball (qualitatively), involving gravity, air resistance, friction, and wind.
• Discusses the possible concrete available-to-the-athlete properties of the trajectories (as the properties would appear in actual play at the court).
• Develops the notion that visual perception requires ideas (implicit or explicit information) to be effective in perceiving facts.
• Examines the biomechanics of visual perception in tennis and analyzes actual tracking, intercepting, and hitting possibilities, contrasting them with the abstract, scientific possibilities.

I prepared this book series with the following audience in mind:

• Physical Education and Sport Science teachers and students. (The series would add computer, physical, and perception aspects to topics like personal care, nutrition, fitness, exercise, and medicine that are commonly studied.)
• Biomechanics and Kinesiology teachers and students. (The books could extend the normal range of topics covered in the subject courses by adding the biomechanics of visual perception.)
• Perception Psychology teachers and students. (The series would add the dynamics of visual tracking of high-speed objects like a tennis ball, a topic not normally covered in most perception books.)
• Sociology teachers and students who might wish to see how simulations of real social contexts such as family dynamics can be developed.
• Education teachers and students who would like to learn how specific skill contexts can be simulated for studies and training for students with perception problems and who feel they could use the computer as a teaching aid.
• Medical teaching fellows and interns who might wish to use simulations in the study and training of skills in patient care.
• Medical researchers who might wish to conduct laboratory experiments using simulation combined with methods in electromyography, say.
• Managers of factory operations who would like to learn how tasks of workers might be made more efficient through computer-based studies.
• Managers of sports teams who would like to produce simulations to study their specialty skills as a basis for training their players.
• Computer Applications teachers and students. The books would be useful to applications programmers who might wish to develop simulation-based studies in areas of their special interest.
• Aspiring golfers and golf pros who might feel the need for simulation-based studies and/or training to sharpen their skills.
• Tennis coaches and players who would like to see how a computer could help them study and train their game skills more carefully and thoroughly.

In this work, a simulation represents the dynamics of a chunk of life, so its development is multi-disciplinary, involving aspects of physics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, and sociology (particularly group dynamics). The main chunks of life we look at are the energetic play to be found at the tennis court and the tension-packed play seen at the golf course. I also draw comparisons with other contexts, both in and out of sports.

However, to keep from repeating what has already been well documented, I've left out a great deal of background material and used only what I thought was most relevant for reasonable description and communication. Also, it’s not possible to be entirely non-technical when discussing the subjects; each area has its own terminology and collection of ideas or repositories of information that resist expression in simpler terms. It would be a bit like discussing tennis in terms of squash. I therefore presume certain preliminaries in the topics. I can only hope this isn't troublesome for you and that it doesn't dampen your interest and enthusiasm for the material.

For much of the background you might consult my published book and Web site together with the references in Book 9 of this series.

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