Collective Mistrust of Alarms

Abstract

Recently, alarm systems have become more sensitive and ubiquitous. Unfortunately, sensitive alarm systems may produce greater numbers of false alarms, lowering an operator's level of trust and degrading task performance. In the past, researchers have considered only situations where individuals react to alarms. Because of the frequency and variability of teamed alarm reaction scenarios, we investigated the reactions of independent and dependent teams to marginally reliable alarms. Based on prior literature, we expected dependent teams to show slower but more appropriate alarm reactions and poorer ongoing task performances. One hundred four general psychology students (52 two-person teams) independently or dependently performed a psychomotor task while reacting to alarms that were 30%, 50%, or 70% reliable. Participants responded more frequently to alarms of higher reliability, and less appropriately to those of medium reliability. Generally, dependent teams made more appropriate alarm reactions. Our results suggest that designers and trainers should promote team interdependence when operators are faced with marginally reliable signals.