Measuring patterns in team interaction sequences using a discrete recurrence approach.

OBJECTIVE: Recurrence-based measures of communication determinism and pattern information are described and validated using previously collected team interaction data. BACKGROUND: Team coordination dynamics has revealed that"mixing" team membership can lead to flexible interaction processes, but keeping a team "intact" can lead to rigid interaction processes. We hypothesized that communication of intact teams would have greater determinism and higher pattern information compared to that of mixed teams. METHOD: Determinism and pattern information were measured from three-person Uninhabited Air Vehicle team communication sequences over a series of 40-minute missions. Because team members communicated using push-to-talk buttons, communication sequences were automatically generated during each mission. RESULTS: The Composition x Mission determinism effect was significant. Intact teams' determinism increased over missions, whereas mixed teams' determinism did not change. Intact teams had significantly higher maximum pattern information than mixed teams. CONCLUSION: Results from these new communication analysis methods converge with content-based methods and support our hypotheses. APPLICATION: Because they are not content based, and because they are automatic and fast, these new methods may be amenable to real-time communication pattern analysis.

The vividness of happiness in dynamic facial displays of emotion.

Rapid identification of facial expressions can profoundly affect social interactions, yet most research to date has focused on static rather than dynamic expressions. In four experiments, we show that when a non-expressive face becomes expressive, happiness is detected more rapidly anger. When the change occurs peripheral to the focus of attention, however, dynamic anger is better detected when it appears in the left visual field (LVF), whereas dynamic happiness is better detected in the right visual field (RVF), consistent with hemispheric differences in the processing of approach- and avoidance-relevant stimuli. The central advantage for happiness is nevertheless the more robust effect, persisting even when information of either high or low spatial frequency is eliminated. Indeed, a survey of past research on the visual search for emotional expressions finds better support for a happiness detection advantage, and the explanation may lie in the coevolution of the signal and the receiver.