Cognitive diversity and team performance in a complex multiple task environment

Abstract

This article examines the multiple effects of cognitive diversity in teams operating complex human-machine-systems. The study employed a PC-based multiple-task environment, called the Cabin Air Management System, which models a process control task in the operational context of a spacecraft's life support system. Two types of cognitive diversity were examined: system understanding and team specialization. System understanding referred to the depth of understanding team members were given during training (low-level procedure-oriented vs. high level knowledge-oriented training). Team specialization referred to the degree to which knowledge about system fault scenarios was distributed between team members (specialized vs. nonspecialized). A total of 72 participants took part in the study. After having received 4.5 h of training on an individual basis, participants completed a 1-h experimental session, in which they worked in two-person teams on a series of fault scenarios of varying difficulty. Measures were taken of primary and secondary task performance, system intervention and information sampling strategies, system knowledge, subjective operator state, communication patterns and conflict. The results provided evidence for the benefits of cognitive diversity with regard to system understanding. This manifested itself in better primary task performance and more efficient manual system control. No advantages were found for cognitive diversity with regard to specialization. There was no effect of cognitive diversity on intra-team conflict, with conflict levels generally being very low. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the engineering of cognitive diversity in teams operating complex human-machine-systems.

The effects of heuristic rule training on operator performance in a simulated process control environment

“…declarative knowledge) was measured by a questionnaire, which had been used in previous studies with the CAMS environment (e.g. Sauer et al 2000aSauer et al , 2006. This was considered to be an efficient instrument to capture the mental model since it was considerably less time-consuming to use than employing alternative methods such as verbal protocols.…”

A multi-level approach of evaluating crew resource management training: a laboratory-based study examining communication skills as a function of team congruence

“…if the co-pilot is incapacitated), although this would clearly be at the cost of excessive workload and, possibly, impaired performance. The suitability of CAMS as a team task has also been demonstrated in a previous study (Sauer et al 2006). Furthermore, previous work has also demonstrated that in a variety of different sub-optimal working conditions (e.g.…”

“…Published in "Ergonomics 53(11) : 1311-1324, 2010" which should be cited to refer to this work research using the same task environment as in the present study indicated that the tasks used are of a disjunctive nature (Sauer et al 2006).…”

“…on a scale from 1 (team mate's influence was much bigger) to 5 (my influence was much bigger). This scale was developed for a previous study, which addressed the issue of team performance (Sauer et al 2006). To check whether both roles assigned were equally attractive to participants, self-reported role liking was measured with four items (two reverse scored).…”

“…It was predicted and found that the more competent participants (mean 3.19) reported to have more knowledge about CAMS than the less competent participants (mean 2.94), t(62) ¼ 2.21, p ¼ 0.031. This scale was developed for a previous study on team performance (Sauer et al 2006). …”