Do You See What I See? Effects of Communication on Scanning Strategies in Change Detection by Individuals and Teams of Observers

Abstract

Change blindness results from the absence of attention from the source of a change. Unsurprisingly, change blindness worsens in dual task and high workload conditions. Such is the environment in which teams of operators in military command and control missions operate, yet little is known about change blindness susceptibility in these conditions. A flicker task required individuals and dyads to detect changes under high and low task difficulty. Reaction time, accuracy, and eye movements were examined. Scan path analyses showed that communicating dyads were more efficient at change detection than individuals and non-communicating dyads, but are just as blind to no change. Eye movement data also indicate differences in attention allocation and scan strategies among individuals, communicating, and non-communicating dyads. Implications for adaptive aids and tasks such as tactical command and control are discussed.