Team Performance in Dynamic Settings: Evaluating Shared Team Mental Model Similarity & Accuracy

Abstract

Teamwork in dynamic conditions relies on shared task mental models—knowledge structure that enables teammates to understand their task and to anticipate their work demands. Shared task mental model are either accurate or similar. Consensus exists that shared task mental model (STMM) accuracy, rather than STMM similarity is important for team performance. I examine conceptual and measurement issues underlying these findings and propose a study examining the complementary role of STMM accuracy and similarity to team performance. Forty-four (44) 3-member teams, engaged in a command and control task, performance was assessed over three scenarios, creating 132 data points. Multilevel regressions and dominance analysis of the data indicated both STMM accuracy and similarity reflected unique aspects of cognition and each predicted team performance scores. The discussion focused on the implications of these findings firstly to the measurement of shared task mental models, and to future conceptualization of shared task mental models