A B S T R A C TRecent research on online learning suggests that virtual worlds are becoming an important environment to observe the experience of flow. From these simulated spaces, researchers may gather a deeper understanding of cognition in the context of game-based learning. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) describes flow as a feeling of increased psychological immersion and energized focus, with outcomes that evoke disregard for external pressures and the loss of time consciousness, issuing in a sense of pleasure. Past studies suggest that flow is encountered in an array of activities and places, including those in virtual worlds. The authors' posit that flow in virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL), can be positively associated with degrees of the cognitive phenomenon of immersion and telepresence. Flow may also contribute to a better attitude and behavior during virtual game-based learning. This study tested three hypotheses related to flow and telepresence, using SL. Findings suggest that both flow and telepresence are experienced in SL and that there is a significant correlation between them. These findings shed light on the complex interrelationships and interactions that lead to flow experience in virtual gameplay and learning, while engendering hope that learners, who experience flow, may acquire an improved attitude of learning online.

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This article describes the theoretical underpinnings and preliminary experimental support for option awareness (OA): the perception and comprehension of the relative desirability of available options, as well the underlying factors and trade-offs that explain that desirability. The authors' research has produced a body of theory and experimental findings supporting the potential for OA to beneficially augment situation awareness (SA) and help decision makers identify the most robust options: those that are most likely to turn out well under the widest range of possible future conditions. OA incorporates perspectives from rationalistic and naturalistic models of decision making, as both are used concurrently in the types of complex high-technology work the authors have examined, including emergency management, infectious disease containment, and air traffic control. The authors have developed approaches to support OA through the use of exploratory modeling and visual analytics. These systems were tested over the course of four humanin-the-loop experiments. The results demonstrate the value of this approach to improve decision accuracy, confidence, and speed for decision makers facing scenarios at varying levels of difficulty. The methodology described here provides a framework to move forward with research on supporting OA in complex and uncertain scenarios in a variety of task domains.

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This paper summarizes multiple perspectives of the common operational picture (COP) in military and civilian crisis management domains viewed from three vantage points: historical, conceptual, and practical. The term COP extends prior research on large group displays to describe a visual representation of tactical, operational, and strategic information intended to generate situation awareness. We present four strata of interest to formulate an innovative conceptual framework of the COP based on user-team needs: structure, representation, processes, and management. This conceptual framework is applied as part of a review of recent and ongoing projects that examines current research gaps in the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to international humanitarian response. INTRODUCTIONThe objective of this paper is to understand and pinpoint multiple perspectives of what has been referred to as the common operational picture (COP). The paper focuses on military and civilian crisis management domains involving multiple levels of teamwork that are often distributed and asynchronous in practice. To engage a broad perspective, this review will view the COP through historical, conceptual, and practical vantage points. These vantage points are not mutually exclusive but lend themselves to different portrayals of the COP as supported by the literature and our own viewpoints of the subject. We review the historical nature of the COP and how the term is presently used for our target areas of interest which are derived from military communications, command, and control (C 3 ) and network-centric operations. The perspective of geographic information systems (GIS) research provides a compelling context to explore these points in detail. BACKGROUND

Team cognition under stress has come under increasing scrutiny, most often in the wake of unfortunate and catastrophic accidents. The role of mood in team cognition, however, has attracted markedly less attention. An exploration of laboratory research on the effects of mood and stress on cognition at the individual level reveals convergent and overlapping findings suggesting that mood plays a more significant role in team cognition than is currently acknowledged. This article proposes a theoretical approach for distinguishing between the impacts of moods and stressors upon team cognition. It is demonstrated that team experiments conducted using this approach can reveal compelling patterns in this complex research space and identify both mediators and moderators in the process. This framework provides further insights into team cognition under stress that point towards design recommendations for systems and procedures used in technologically complex work environments.

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