As we begin looking at research within distributed team cognition, two thoughts are paramount: (1) to realize where the emergence distributed team cognition has come from (i.e., its historical significance and character and (2) to understand the reciprocation and influences among teamwork, cognition, and technology advancement as a basis for development of the field. In particular, we draw upon the incredible amount of research work done that indelibly the result of team simulations. Much of our own work emerged from the use of technology-enabled team simulations. This chapter reviews this work along with earlier foundations that set up and substantiate the study of teams both for collocated and distributed settings. This chapter presents Part I of team simulation research that focuses on understanding the long developmental path of work that has preceded current day theories, approaches, methods, and models to establish precedence and meaning.

: This report describes our creation, application, and validation testing of an experimental paradigm -- TRACE (Tradeoffs, Research, and Analysis in Collaborative Ergonomics). Our primary goal in developing TRACE was to craft a framework within which to experimentally probe issues relevant to negotiation and decision making in multidisciplinary design teams. The paradigm was adapted from negotiation research in the area of integrative (win-win) bargaining and was set in the context of an automobile navigation system development project. We hypothesized that if the paradigm reasonably captures the context of real-world multidisciplinary design practice, individuals with actual design experience would perform better than individuals with little or no design experience.

: The purpose of this report was to describe the development of a research paradigm to study multidisciplinary design teams. An historical overview of multidisciplinary design teams identified two issues critical for effective collaboration: information sharing and avoiance of misanalogies. The process of developing a research paradigm to focus on these issues involved finding a design problem and eliciting knowledge from design experts. The problem selected was the design of an automobile navigation system (AutoMate). To identify key tradeoffs to build the task around, knowledge was elicited from 13 design experts. The design experts were interviewed and their knowledge concept mapped. Based on the design experts' knowledge, the AutoMate task was developed. The task and its potential uses are discussed.

Abstract : The utility of shared versus isolated operator and display setting was examined in the context of a complex, dynamic, team decision-making task. Both alphanumeric and graphic display formats were utilized as well as moderate and fast information presentation rates. Performance scores were significantly higher, and subjective workload ratings were significantly lower for the graphic display and moderate information rate conditions. No differences were found for shared versus isolated operator/display settings except in the combined worst case condition of alphanumeric format and fast information rate, where a slight advantage was found for the shared operator/display setting. An exploratory analysis of group verbal and nonverbal communication behavior was also conducted. Isolated operator/display settings tended to produce more verbal activity and less gesturing than shared operator/display settings. Verbal activity was also found to be sensitive to information presentation rates. Keywords: Group displays, Command and control, Command centers, Man machine interface, Group decision making, Command control and communications.

The utility of shared versus isolated operator/display setting was examined in the context of a complex, dynamic, team decisionmaking task. Both alphanumeric and graphic display formats were utilized as well as moderate and fast information presentation rates. Performance scores were significantly higher and subjective workload ratings significantly lower for the graphic display and moderate information rate conditions. No differences were found for shared versus isolated operator/display setting except in the combined “worst case” condition of alphanumeric format and fast information rate, where a slight advantage was found for the shared operator/display setting.