NOTE: Element change to Human Factors & Behavioral Performance; previously Behavioral Health & Performance (Ed., 1/17/17)

NOTE: Project continues as "Team Task Switching in Astronaut Crews on the International Space Station: Integrating Multiteam Membership, Multiteam Systems, Multitasking, & Multidimensional Networks to Monitor & Enable Functional Work Shifts in Astronaut Crews--80NSSC18K0276," due to Principal Investigator move to Northwestern University in Fall 2016.

Our research on team task switching examines factors that affect the decision and ability of individuals to switch between tasks with varying levels of interdependence, as well as discuss the mediators and moderators that determine adaptive switching in today’s complicated work environments. This model affords a comprehensive understanding of how individuals adapt to dynamic, environmentally-triggered performance demands requiring them to change tasks, teams, and technologies, and shift back and forth between personal, team, and system goals.

Our research will be useful for investigating task switching in any modern-day organization facing complex collaborative challenges, such as NASA space exploration, large scientific consortia (e.g., CERN-the European Organization for Nuclear Research), cybersecurity teams, healthcare systems, and the military. Furthermore, findings could then be leveraged to develop system-wide interventions that increase overall work efficiency and resilience in safety-critical systems.

In Year 1 we developed a conceptual framework to guide our thinking in this area, and have conducted research in Year 2, which allows us to begin to draw conclusions about the role of task/team/technology switches on individual/team/multiteam process and performance. Our conceptual framework highlights three key types of switches (task, team, and technology) as well as two directions of switching (lateral versus vertical). Lateral switches occur when individuals shift across tasks, teams, or technologies/tools. Such lateral shifts can be either singular or compound. A singular shift entails changes in one of the three elements (e.g., the individual switches from working on task A to task B or from working with tool A to tool B). In contrast, a compound shift entails changes on two or more of the task, team, and tool dimensions (e.g., a compound task-team shift means the individual goes from working on task A with individuals X, Y, and Z to working on task B with individuals I, J, and K). Our framework also describes vertical switches, which involve a shift in the level of interdependence (e.g., individual, single team, multiple teams) needed to complete a task. Vertical shifts can be either upward (e.g., working independently to working with a team) or downward (e.g., working with a team to working independently).

In Year 2 of our project, we’ve conducted a five-pronged effort at understanding the potential role of team/task/tool switching in long duration space exploration: (1) policy-capturing research to explore the factors that affect attraction to different teams, (2) laboratory studies to explore ability to effectively make switches, (3) agent based model development to explore the psychological, task, tool, and social network based factors that determine desire to stay with or switch from a task/team/tool, (4) analog studies using HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) crews to explore how task characteristics affected vertical and lateral switches, and (5) a task switching survey aboard the ISS.

The policy capturing research conducted in Study 1 explores the team characteristics that may contribute to team attractiveness. We explored the extent to which aspects of team cognition, cohesion, and coordination made teams more or less attractive. Results suggested team cohesiveness was the most influential factor in determining the extent to which a team was deemed “attractive” to work with. Team attractiveness is one factor that will affect an astronaut’s desire to make a team switch.

In Study 2, we conducted a series of laboratory studies to explore team and tool characteristics (e.g., shared team cognition and tool availability) that affect switch preferences and efficiency. We employed laboratory-based survival simulation tasks to explore stickiness and attractiveness of teams/tasks/tools as well as the ability to easily switch across tasks/teams. Results suggested (1) shared mental models within the team (shared cognition) predict efficiency of switching across teams/tasks, and (2) team cohesion predicts the extent to which an existing versus alternative team is more attractive to work with. Understanding factors that affect switch efficiency and attractiveness of alternative teams/tasks will inform future models aimed at developing work schedules in similarly complex environments.

In Study 3, we have worked to develop an agent based model (ABM) to predict the extent to which factors like psychological, task, tool, and/or social network attributes predict preference to stay with an existing task versus switch to an alternative task. We developed the ABM in two phases. First, we canvassed the relevant literature on task switching to determine which factors may be important to determining the “stickiness” of a task. Second, we collected laboratory data to estimate and then test the parameters of the agent based model. The ABM will be used in Year 3 to run “virtual experiments” wherein we can pose “what if” questions that will directly inform the development of effective task switching schedules.

In Study 4, we collected analog data in NASA’s HERA analog to explore the factors (like task difficulty, interest, salience, and interdependence) that influence preference and efficiency in vertical and horizontal switches. We explored how personality, cognitive similarity, and team dynamics and structure predict the relative stickiness and attractiveness among individuals within a team and multiteam system.

In Study 5, we designed a survey to administer aboard the ISS. Thus far we have designed and pilot tested the survey, and then completed the various stages of vetting for flight selection. As of the end of this reporting period we have just learned that our study was selected for flight! This effort will be conducted next year.

Our research will provide fundamental, generalizable findings in the area of efficient task switching across teams and multiteam systems. Specifically, previous models of task switching revolve around task and individual factors that affect work efficiency as individuals move from task to task throughout their workday. However, individuals not only accomplish tasks individually using one technological tool, they do so as members of multiple teams using a variety of technologies. Our conceptual framework of team task switching lays out a framework of vertical and lateral shifts, the sources of inertia, and the mediators and moderators that determine adaptive switching in today’s complicated work environments. This model affords a comprehensive understanding of how individuals adapt to dynamic, environmentally-triggered performance demands requiring them to change tasks, teams, and technologies, and shift back and forth between personal, team, and system goals. Our framework will be useful for investigating task switching in any modern-day organization facing complex collaborative challenges, such as NASA space exploration, large scientific consortia (e.g., CERN), cybersecurity teams, healthcare systems, and the military. Furthermore, findings could then be leveraged to develop system-wide interventions that increase overall work efficiency and resilience in safety-critical systems. In this review period, we have collected data across multiple platforms to begin to understand the effects of variables across our conceptual framework on individual and team task switching performance, preferences, and motivations.

In addition to providing Earth Benefits in the area of efficient task switching across teams, tasks, and technologies, we are also testing our hypotheses in analogs that recreate the unique contexts in which astronauts operate (i.e.,extreme, isolated/confined environments). We will compare results across research paradigms to see how effects of isolation/confinement may moderate team task switching behavior and performance, thus providing unique findings that will inform NASA’s operations aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and on Long-Duration Space Exploration (LDSE) missions.

NOTE: Project continues as "Team Task Switching in Astronaut Crews on the International Space Station: Integrating Multiteam Membership, Multiteam Systems, Multitasking, & Multidimensional Networks to Monitor & Enable Functional Work Shifts in Astronaut Crews--80NSSC18K0276," due to Principal Investigator move to Northwestern University in Fall 2016. See that project for subsequent reporting.

NOTE: Element change to Human Factors & Behavioral Performance; previously Behavioral Health & Performance (Ed., 1/17/17)

Our research on team task switching examines factors that affect the decision and ability of individuals to switch between tasks with varying levels of interdependence, as well as discuss the mediators and moderators that determine adaptive switching in today’s complicated work environments. This model affords a comprehensive understanding of how individuals adapt to dynamic, environmentally-triggered performance demands requiring them to change tasks, teams, and technologies, and shift back and forth between personal, team, and system goals.

Our research will be useful for investigating task switching in any modern-day organization facing complex collaborative challenges, such as NASA space exploration, large scientific consortia (e.g., CERN-the European Organization for Nuclear Research), cybersecurity teams, healthcare systems, and the military. Furthermore, findings could then be leveraged to develop system-wide interventions that increase overall work efficiency and resilience in safety-critical systems.

In order to understand the important characteristics of teams that individuals use when making decisions on when to switch team tasks, and on which team they would prefer to work, we utilized a novel approach to uncovering individuals’ "policies” for making decisions that describe how some team characteristics may be more heavily weighted in those decisions than others. The impetus for this research was to better understand how astronauts on extended long-distance space exploration missions, who may be completely isolated from Mission Control, and, therefore, have the agency to freely switch between multiple team tasks, make team task switching decisions. To this end, we leveraged the policy capturing approach to identify social factors that individuals use when choosing to work with a team. Aspects of teams that individuals find “attractive” will be determined by analyzing the team task switching choices participants make while reading a number of team task scenarios. Specifically, a within-subjects crossed design will be used with social factors as the independent variable (i.e., team cohesion, team processes, and shared mental models) and task switching decision (i.e., likelihood of remaining on the current team task) as the dependent variable. The study will be the first to isolate social factors related to an individual’s task management choices in complex work systems.

DATA COLLECTION

A. HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) Campaign Participation and Data Collection: We participated in HERA Campaign 3 Mission 1, in partial fulfillment of our objective to collect team task switching data in an analog environment. To capture the full representative structure of a NASA mission to Mars, the HERA crew served as an isolated/confined crew in an environment similar to one that may travel beyond low-Earth orbit, and eight undergraduate participants at Georgia Tech served as Mission Control teams supporting the HERA crew on their mission. We ran three 2-hour sessions (3-hour sessions for participants at Georgia Tech who received 1 hour of training) in which we collected unobtrusive team task-switching data, as well as performance data on the overall task. We also collected team process data through pop-up surveys administered throughout sessions. Additionally, we implemented a time delay within our own software platform to align with the time delay manipulation implemented in HERA during our second session. We are pleased to report that all data collection efforts across all three 2-hour HERA sessions were successful.

B. Project RED Platform, and Additional Multiteam System Experimental Sessions - Control Sessions: The platform used to collect this data was the computer-based multi-team task platform that we developed at Georgia Tech, called Project Red planet Exploration and Development (Project RED). In Project RED, four teams of 3 members each (i.e., a Multiteam System; MTS) work on solving the complex problem of designing and implementing a well infrastructure on Mars that will support future inhabitants of the planet. We are pleased to report that all data collection efforts across all three 2-hour HERA sessions were successful. We have also designed four additional control experiment sessions (one completed, three to be run by the end of the annual review period) to obtain baseline measures against which we can compare our analog data of crew members in an isolated/confined environment. One manipulation will be the distribution of the MTS. In the distributed condition, 4 participants will serve as the “crew” located in the SONIC lab at Northwestern University, and the remaining 8 “Mission Control” participants will be located in the DELTA lab at Georgia Tech. For the non-distributed MTS condition, all participants will be located at the DELTA lab at Georgia Tech. The second manipulation will be the presence or absence of a time delay in communication.

C. Policy Capturing - Judgment and Decision Making Approach to Understanding Team Task Switching: In order to understand the important characteristics of teams that individuals use when making decisions on when to switch team tasks, and on which team they would prefer to work, we utilized a novel approach to uncovering individuals’ “policies” for making decisions that describe how some team characteristics may be more heavily weighted in those decisions than others. The impetus for this research was to better understand how astronauts on extended LDSE missions, who may be completely isolated from Mission Control, and, therefore, have the agency to freely switch between multiple team tasks, make team task switching decisions. To this end, we leveraged the policy capturing approach to identify social factors that individuals use when choosing to work with a team. Aspects of teams that individuals find “attractive” will be determined by analyzing the team task switching choices participants make while reading a number of team task scenarios. Specifically, a within-subjects crossed design will be used with social factors as the independent variable (i.e., team cohesion, team processes, and shared mental models) and task switching decision (i.e., likelihood of remaining on the current team task) as the dependent variable. The study will be the first to isolate social factors related to an individual’s task management choices in complex work systems.

D. ISS Protocol Submission: We have also submitted a proposal for studying team task switching on the ISS in addition to the Project RED data. We received feedback from International Space Station Medical Projects, and our response to their feedback is currently under review. Sampling actual flight crews would enable us to provide the most accurate and useful assessment of the effects of task entrainment in real space environments, and to develop an intervention to mitigate these effects. The proposed in-flight research would be carried out using a sample of two members of three flight crews (six total participants) over a 1.5-year period (Planned for Expeditions 49 - 52), and would examine when member switch tasks, as well as available measures of performance on these tasks, and end-of-day (EOD) survey data being collected on these days in order to map key team characteristics involved in lateral team task switches to switch costs and key interdependence coordination costs and motivation involved in vertical shifts to switch costs. Astronauts will be wearing activity trackers and sociometric badges that provide further information about the task performance and preferences. Additionally, we requested the documentation of start and stop times of tasks, an assessment of the degree to which each task is complete or requires rework, and proposed distributing surveys to further assess how lateral switches across teams and vertical switches to different levels of interdependence impact team and task perceptions.