Objective A method for detecting real-time changes in team cognition in the form of significant communication reorganizations is described. We demonstrate the method in the context of scenario-based simulation training. Background We present the dynamical view that individual- and team-level aspects of team cognition are temporally intertwined in a team’s real-time response to challenging events. We suggest that this real-time response represents a fundamental team cognitive skill regarding the rapidity and appropriateness of the response, and methods and metrics are needed to track this skill. Method Communication data from medical teams (Study 1) and submarine crews (Study 2) were analyzed for significant communication reorganization in response to training events. Mutual information between team members informed post hoc filtering to identify which team members contributed to reorganization. Results Significant communication reorganizations corresponding to challenging training events were detected for all teams. Less experienced teams tended to show delayed and sometimes ineffective responses that more experienced teams did not. Mutual information and post hoc filtering identified the individual-level inputs driving reorganization and potential mechanisms (e.g., leadership emergence, role restructuring) underlying reorganization. Conclusion The ability of teams to rapidly and effectively reorganize coordination patterns as the situation demands is a team cognitive skill that can be measured and tracked. Application Potential applications include team monitoring and assessment that would allow for visualization of a team’s real-time response and provide individualized feedback based on team member’s contributions to the team response.
This study provides evidence of the efficacy of internet-based psychoeducation interventions for bipolar disorder in reducing depressive symptoms. Further investigation is needed to assess effectiveness in a public program.
By its very nature, much of teamwork is distributed across, and not stored within, interdependent people working toward a common goal. In this light, we advocate a systems perspective on teamwork that is based on general coordination principles that are not limited to cognitive, motor, and physiological levels of explanation within the individual. In this article, we present a framework for understanding and modeling teams as dynamical systems and review our empirical findings on teams as dynamical systems. We proceed by (a) considering the question of why study teams as dynamical systems, (b) considering the meaning of dynamical systems concepts (attractors; perturbation; synchronization; fractals) in the context of teams, (c) describe empirical studies of team coordination dynamics at the perceptual-motor, cognitive-behavioral, and cognitive-neurophysiological levels of analysis, and (d) consider the theoretical and practical implications of this approach, including new kinds of explanations of human performance and real-time analysis and performance modeling. Throughout our discussion of the topics we consider how to describe teamwork using equations and/or modeling techniques that describe the dynamics. Finally, we consider what dynamical equations and models do and do not tell us about human performance in teams and suggest future research directions in this area.
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