A Synthetic Task Environment for Team Cognition Research

Abstract

A STE (Synthetic Task Environment) provides the context for a suite of synthetic tasks in which skills pertinent to the corresponding real-world task can be exercised in a controlled setting, thus bridging the gap between lab and field studies. The UAV (Uninhabited Air Vehicle)-STE described in this paper was designed to provide a flexible research platform, yet realistic task environment, for team performance research and the measurement of team cognition. The abstraction of task features from the real UAV task environment occurred with these objectives serving as a filter. In the resulting UAV-STE, three team members work together to control and navigate the UAV and to take photographs of designated targets. Whereas, there are similarities between the synthetic and real UAV task environments, the differences reflect the objectives in that the UAV-STE exaggerates team cognition, provides task and measurement flexibility, and allows for relatively rapid skill acquisition by inexperienced participants.