The utility of event-based knowledge elicitation.

The purpose of this investigation was to describe and evaluate an event-based knowledge elicitation technique. With this approach experts are provided with deliberate and controlled job situations, allowing investigation of specific task aspects and the comparison of expert responses. For this effort a videotape was developed showing an instructor pilot and student conducting a training mission. Various job situations were depicted in the video to gather information pertinent to understanding team situational awareness. The videotape was shown to 10 instructors and 10 student aviators in the community, and responses to the videotape were collected using a questionnaire at predetermined stop points. Consistent with expectations, the results showed that more experienced respondents (i.e., instructors) identified a richer database of cues and were more likely than students to identify strategies for responding to the situations depicted, providing some empirical evidence for the validity of the event-based technique. This method may serve as a useful knowledge elicitation technique, especially in the later stages of a job analysis when focused information is sought.

Measuring team knowledge.

Multioperator tasks often require complex cognitive processing at the team level. Many team cognitive processes, such as situation assessment and coordination, are thought to rely on team knowledge. Team knowledge is multifaceted and comprises relatively generic knowledge in the form of team mental models and more specific team situation models. In this methodological review paper, we review recent efforts to measure team knowledge in the context of mapping specific methods onto features of targeted team knowledge. Team knowledge features include type, homogeneity versus heterogeneity, and rate of knowledge change. Measurement features include knowledge elicitation method, team metric, and aggregation method. When available, we highlight analytical conclusions or empirical data that support a connection between team knowledge and measurement method. In addition, we present empirical results concerning the relation between team knowledge and performance for each measurement method and identify research and methodological needs. Addressing issues surrounding the measurement of team knowledge is a prerequisite to understanding team cognition and its relation to team performance and to designing training programs or devices to facilitate team cognition.

Status and cockpit dynamics: a review and empirical study.

One of the most troublesome dynamics evident in the airplane cockpit is related to patterns of authority relations between the captain and the first officer: Too often, captains fail to listen and first officers fail to speak. The authors propose that many instances of superordinate and subordinate behavior in the cockpit--the captain's tendency to reject input from other team members and the first officer's hesitancy to question the captain--represent cases of status generalization. First, the authors describe the theory of status generalization and show support for the operation of the theory by presenring examples of flightcrew behavior that the theory predicts. Second, an initial empirical test was conducted to instantiate the claim that captain-first officer differences can be seen as status differences. Finally, the significance and implications of this perspective are discussed.

Enhancing teamwork in complex environments through team training.

Although the importance of team training has become widely recognized, research is needed to more clearly understand what instructional strategies actually lead to enhanced teamwork and performance. This research incorporates a theoretical framework, based on the work of J.A. Cannon-Bowers, S.I. Tannenbaum, E. Salas, and C.E. Volpe (1995), to guide the systematic development of training that targeted specific team competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, and attitudes). The theoretically designed training was delivered to 42 male aviators from an undergraduate naval aviation community. A comprehensive evaluation of this training was conducted using a multiple-measurement approach. Results provide strong support for the effectiveness of this team training in improving critical team competencies.

The role of trainee knowledge structures in aviation team environments.

The importance of having well-developed knowledge structures to enhance complex team performance has been recently indicated in the training effectiveness literature. This work tested that proposition within an aviation team training setting. Results suggested that aviation team training improved the knowledge structures of those participants who received the training. Knowledge structure data also provided information related to the training that was not available from more traditional measures of learning. Finally, results obtained from the knowledge structure measures were consistent with performance results, suggesting that knowledge structure measures are a potentially valid predictor of performance.