Application of Hand-Held PC Technology to Support Evaluation of Tactical Decision Making Performance

Abstract

High performance activities as firefighting, tactical command and control, and trauma victim rescues routinely require teams to perform complex and difficult tasks that are ambiguous, rapidly evolving, time pressed, physically risky, and that require multi-component decisions. Training high performance teams requires scenarios that are realistic; therefore, developing effective training requires specifying and designing adequate measurement and diagnostic tools for tracking the complex team interactions that underlie team performance. However, the paper-based nature of these training tools is labor intensive and costly, and severely limits the ability to provide team feedback in a timely manner. The Shipboard Mobile Aid for Training and Evaluation (ShipMATE) has been successfully engineered for automating assessment of team process measures. In this paper we describe a similar approach for automating assessment, diagnosis, and performance feedback on team tactical decision making (TDM) behaviors. First, we review lessons learned from the design of ShipMATE for teamwork skills and describe a prototype ShipMATE interface for evaluating team TDM. Implications for application to tactical team training are also discussed.