The Team Multiple Errands Test

Abstract

Teams have the ability to achieve goals that are unobtainable by individuals alone. However, there is little agreement on a standard model for researching the performance of distributed teams. Initial pilot results suggest that the Multiple Errands Test (MET), when adapted to a team in a virtual environment, is a platform for evaluating the impact of feedback characteristics. To demonstrate the potential of the Team MET as a platform for future team research in the broader CSCW community, an example study is described in which team members are given feedback in one of four conditions: individual private, team private, individual public, and team public.

MazeWorld: A Game-Based Environment developed to Assess Teaming Behaviors

“…Previous studies have analyzed teams using games such as BlocksWorld (Johnson et al, 2009) and Minecraft for urban search and rescue (Bartlett & Cooke, 2015). Custombuilt platforms include military surveillance (Ostrander et al, 2015), the Team Multiple Errands Task (Walton et al, 2015), and NASA's Moonbase Alpha (Wiltshire et al, 2017) and CERTT's UAV-STE (Cooke & Shope, 2004). In general, simulated platforms have struggled to isolate teaming skills from task skills capable of understanding the teams separate from the context of the testbed (Cavanah et al, 2020).…”

The Effect of Feedback Type on Perception of Performance

“…To test this hypothesis, the authors implemented a task called the Team Multiple Errands Test (TMET). The TMET was introduced and described previously Walton, Gilbert, Winer, Dorneich, & Bonner, 2015). The work presented by described how the original Multiple Errands Test (MET) could be modified to study team performance in a virtual environment.…”

The Challenges of Building Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Teams

“…When assessing performance, the teams purposes and members should be considered (Salas et al, 2004;Sottilare et al 2011). An important aspect of team training is how feedback differs within the team setting as opposed to when it is specific to an individual (Walton et al, 2015;Nadler, 1979).…”

“…The Virtual MET (VMET) was created by altering the original MET-HV for completion in a virtual environment (Rand, Rukan, Weiss, & Katz, 2009). The authors utilized the MET to evaluate distributed teams, creating the TMET (Walton et al, 2015;Walton, 2015). In exploring a team-based MET, we are able to ask research questions based on how different forms of feedback affects team performance and team trust, how the familiarity of team members affect team performance, and a variety of other team constructs.…”