The Role of Timing of Information Front-Loading and Planning Ahead in All-Human vs. Human-Autonomy Team Performance

Abstract

The current study examines the effects of teams front-loading information and planning ahead through team-level communication during action phases of taskwork on team performance across all-human and human-autonomy teams (HATs) in a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System-Synthetic Task Environment (RPAS-STE). Twenty-one three-member teams (two participants teaming with either a trained experimenter or autonomous agent) flew an RPA with the goal of photographing target waypoints. Basing action phases on Information-Negotiation-Feedback (I-N-F) loops, we used the time difference between F-I as an indication of a team front-loading information. Planning ahead was hypothesized to occur in teams with longer F-I times. We found that all-human teams performed better than HATs while engaging in less front-loading. This indicates that F-I might have been measuring an aspect of team coordination related to optimal timing of action phases and flow of performing taskwork. Effective teamwork may require the right person (agent) get the right information at the right time rather than front-loading information as much as possible.