Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become the new normal in the era of pandemic-induced physical distancing. CMC has dramatically reduced business travel and daily commuting for knowledge workers able to work from home, which in turn reduces carbon emissions and energy expenditure. CMC offers a different communication experience compared to in-person interactions, and its impact on the success of communication is complex. Here, we report the Communication Objectives Model (COM), a framework developed to: a) understand differences in the performance of communication objectives between CMC and face-to-face interactions, and b) guide future research on measurement of such communication objectives. Given that effective communication is essentially the result of a team activity, the psychosocial constructs that comprise our framework are derived from team research across multiple domains (e.g., social psychology, human-computer interaction, and computer supported cooperative work). Constructs of interest include trust, rapport, engagement, conflict management, collective efficacy, mental models, and shared situation awareness. For each construct, we provide a definition, empirical evidence, and theoretical bases for its observable behavioral markers, as well as potential measurement methods and analytical techniques. The contributions of this research include a framework for characterizing differences between different communication media, a hypothetical implementation demonstrating how the framework can inform the decision to travel in-person versus to deploy CMC (i.e., a travel replacement threshold), and an inventory of tools and techniques that can be used to measure and assess the psychosocial constructs involved in CMC.

Contact tracing is vital to controlling the spread of disease. This process relies on effective recall of past interactions during contact tracing interviews; as such, psychological science suggests that limitations on human memory and cognition could hinder contact tracing efforts. Methods for enhancing memory performance have been widely addressed within the psychological literature. Further, there is evidence that self-administered interviews are an effective way to gather information while conserving person power. The current experiment leveraged the unique conditions of an ongoing pandemic and research on both memory and self-administered interviewing to compare two interviews: an enhanced cognitive protocol based on best practices in investigative interviewing, and a control interview that aligned with current practices for COVID-19 contact tracing interviews. Each protocol was tested via two modalities: an interviewer-led audio-only Zoom call and a self-led online survey. Across 200 interviews with adults throughout the United States, the enhanced protocol increased the number of contacts reported by more than 50% as compared to the control protocol. Modality (i.e., call vs. online survey) had neither a main nor moderating effect on recall. These findings suggest that implementing psychologically-informed interview techniques can significantly increase the number of contacts that infected persons can report. Further, these improvements can be realized in an interviewer-free context, reducing time and resource requirements.