Investigating Temporal Implications of Information Transition in Submarine Command Teams

Abstract

Previous work revealed bottlenecks in information transition between submarine command team members, which may be detrimental to overall performance. To date, the potential impact of such bottlenecks in terms of time to pass critical information has not been investigated. An understanding of the temporal impact is critical, given the time critical nature of tactical picture generation. Four teams of eight participants (32 participants total) were recruited and trained at one of the operator stations in a bespoke built submarine control room simulator. Participants completed high and low demand Return to Periscope Depth scenarios. The timings of technology-human and human-human interactions were calculated. Preliminary results indicated that the largest temporal lag was the transition of human-human information. Furthermore, loss of information occurred with every stage of information transition. As demand increased, the efficiency of information transition was negatively impacted by increased communications between operators. Initial results are discussed along with future analysis plans.