Collaborative training with a more experienced partner: remediating low pretraining self-efficacy in complex skill acquisition.

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of collaborative training for individuals with low pretraining self-efficacy versus individuals with high pretraining self-efficacy regarding the acquisition of a complex skill that involved strong cognitive and psychomotor demands.

Background: Despite support for collaborative learning from the educational literature and the similarities between collaborative learning and interventions designed to remediate low self-efficacy, no research has addressed how self-efficacy and collaborative learning interact in contexts concerning complex skills and human-machine interactions.

Method: One hundred fifty-five young male adults trained either individually or collaboratively with a more experienced partner on a complex computer task that simulated the demands of a dynamic aviation environment.