Complementary Information Distribution to Improve Team Performance in Military Helicopter Operations: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This study compared a complementary information distribution, that is, purposeful distribution to individual crewmembers of the information needed for their individual tasks, to the current distribution where all crewmembers can access all information in the flight deck. The complementary information distribution is intended to foster a complementary mental model that promotes each team member's access to information according to his or her immediate tasks. The hypothesis—that the complementary information distribution would improve performance and team interaction—was tested in a high-fidelity military helicopter flight simulator with 20 Army aviators. The complementary information distribution was found to have no effect or a positive effect (and no negative effects) on measures of individual's task performance and error rates, with greater positive effects on most measures in off-nominal compared to nominal flight conditions. In addition, measures of team communication and awareness of fellow crewmembers' information needs and workload also found only no effect or positive effects with a complementary information distribution.