Task Ambiguity in Combat Shooting Environments: Training Implications of an Ecological Dynamics Perspective

Traditional military combat shooting training is typically static, highly structured, and planned. It often uses single-target engagements, lacking the requirement for friend and foe discrimination and fails to include the ambiguity and uncertainty of tasks found in real-world combat environments. This means that training may not successfully simulate combat challenges to survival and navigation of military environments. Here, we discuss an ecological dynamics approach to provide an alternative view of traditional military combat shooting training doctrine. We outline why this alternative view is advantageous for rethinking combat shooting training to prepare combatants for the uncertainties of the military environment. The paper introduces the concept of ‘task ambiguity’ and its constituent components: fields of affordances, action uncertainty, and changing informational constraints. We provide examples throughout from military and sporting contexts of how task ambiguity shapes perception, action, and cognition of performers. Last, we discuss practical implications for the training of combat shooters to create enskilled, adaptable combatants who can successfully navigate uncertain and ambiguous surroundings.