Patterns of Team Collaboration Employed to Solve Unique Problems

Abstract

“Macrocognition” is an emerging area of knowledge engineering that focuses on understanding how cognition emerges in natural environments. One goal for studying macrocognition is to understand the complexity entailed in inter- and intra-individual cognition. In this paper we describe our analysis of several complex team collaboration tasks: firefighters from the Fire Department of New York on Sept. 11, 2001, air warfare teams on an Aegis ship, and the team collaboration entailed in conducting Maritime Interdiction Operations. Team communications that transpired during three complex problem solving situations were analyzed to understand how teams collaborate to create new knowledge and decide on a course of action during complex, one-of-a-kind problems. These processes include (1) individual knowledge building, (2) developing knowledge interoperability, (3) team shared understanding, and (4) team consensus. The way the team's cognitive behavior maps to the model is discussed along with differences in patterns of collaboration for different decision-making domains.

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