In a follow-up study to our first investigation (Roma et al., 2011) of what is now referred to as bounded autonomy, the psychosocial and performance effects of autonomous management of Planetary Exploration Simulation (PES) missions were robust to communications constraints despite a physiological stress reaction to the unexpected loss of audio and text-messaging abilities. The results of this study have been prepared for publication and are now in press (Roma et al., in press). A final experiment of increased operational fidelity further supported the performance and psychosocial benefits of autonomy as assessed in extended duty 12-hour missions conducted during different phases of the 24-hour circadian cycle (Day: 9am–9pm vs. Night: 9pm–9am). As with previous work, crew performance was higher and physiological stress reactivity lower under autonomous conditions; however, overnight workloads produced decrements in individual performances that included reaction time deficits, attentional lapses, and subjective fatigue. Importantly, despite these decrements, crew performance efficiency remained normal under autonomous operations. Lapses in individual performances thus appeared to be compensated for in the overall crew performance, further supporting the utility of well-trained multi-person crews as a countermeasure to compromised individual performance capacity under heavy workload and acute circadian misalignment. Interestingly, voluntary cooperation and fairness in a standardized behavioral assay were not affected by circadian factors, but were significantly reduced under highly scheduled mission management. This finding is significant because it indicates the potential intra-crew manifestation of an external stressor imposed by Mission Control (as opposed to enhanced cohesion through de facto ingroup-outgroup formation) and reveals a group-level lapse in voluntary cooperative propensity outside previously trained mission-specific tasks. Taken together, our ground-based experimental research program supports the value of autonomous mission operations in well-trained long-term crews, but also underscores the importance of process training to enhance group cohesion when confronted with unexpected operational and psychosocial challenges requiring communication, coordination, and cooperation beyond the specific tasks for which the crew was trained.

Our recently developed behavioral task, known by the prototype software's working titles of "Team Performance Task" (TPT) or "Price of Cooperation" (PoC), has moved from initial software development into an early application phase as a simple, rapid, and objective group-level assay of voluntary cooperation, productivity, and fairness. Extensive laboratory tests have established some basic parameters and novel behavioral economic analysis methods for TPT/PoC data (Emurian et al., 2011; Hursh & Roma, in press). Additional parametric research in intact work-groups shows that the task is easily learned and remarkably sensitive to task duration, external incentives, and stable inter-crew differences; the results of this work are now being prepared for peer-reviewed publication. Additional high-throughput validation efforts are now ongoing, and reveal the TPT's ability to objectively discriminate between 3-person groups composed of friends versus groups composed of strangers.

-- Data from first experiment on "bounded autonomy" published (Roma et al., 2011)

-- Follow-up experiment on autonomy and communications constraints completed

-- Data from follow-up experiment on autonomy and communications constraints published (Roma et al., in press)

-- Procedures for experimental studies of autonomy and circadian factors under heavy workload complete

-- Pilot experiment on interaction between autonomy and circadian factors under heavy workload complete

-- Data from pilot experiment on interaction between autonomy and circadian factors under heavy workload submitted for publication

-- Alpha-level experiments establishing TPT/PoC task parameters complete

-- Portions of data from alpha-level experiments establishing TPT/PoC task and analysis parameters published (Emurian et al., 2011; Hursh & Roma, in press)

-- TPT/PoC "Familiar-Stranger" validation study in European subjects complete

-- TPT/PoC "Familiar-Stranger" validation study in US subjects complete

The results show that cooperative and productive interactions are maintained between individually isolated and dispersed crew members in a task-driven environment, and that experimental flight crews actively engage in communicating and effective problem-solving over extended time intervals without benefit of one another's physical presence. In addition, investigations of communication modality constraints have shown a high degree of interchangeability between available communication modes that acted as a countermeasure to maintain effective crew performance. Further, variations in crew configurations have shown that performance effectiveness levels are significantly reduced during missions in which crew assignment changes resulted in inexperienced crew configurations, as contrasted with highly-experienced crew configurations. Studies of positive and negative incentive conditions on crew performance effectiveness have also shown increased performance effectiveness under both positive and negative incentive conditions, but an adverse change in psychosocial adaptation. Thus incentive conditions associated with simulated spaceflight missions can significantly affect psychosocial adaptation without compromising task performance effectiveness in trained and experienced crews.

Recent studies on "bounded autonomy" add experimental evidence to the empirical database by assessing crew performance effectiveness under rigid, schedule-based management of crew activities by Mission Control versus more flexible, autonomous self-managed activities. Under autonomous missions, crew performance improved and negative psychosocial adaptation self-report measures decreased; autonomous missions also produced decreased linguistic expressions of negative emotion and increased expressions of social processes and achievement. In addition, physiological stress markers were lower during autonomous missions. In a follow-up study, the psychosocial and performance effects of autonomy were robust to communications constraints despite a physiological stress reaction to the unexpected loss of audio and text-messaging abilities. Recently completed follow-up studies further support the performance and psychosocial benefits of autonomy assessed in longer-duration, 12-hour mission simulations conducted during different phases of the 24-hour circadian cycle (Early: 9am-9pm vs. Late: 9pm-9am). As with previous work, crew performance was higher and physiological stress reactivity lower under autonomous conditions; however, overnight workloads produced significant decrements in individual performances that included reaction time deficits, attentional lapses, psychosocial communication reductions, and decreases in voluntary cooperation. Importantly, despite these decrements, crew performance efficiency remained normal. Lapses in individual performances thus appeared to be compensated for in the overall crew performance, indicating the utility of multi-person crews as a countermeasure to individual performance lapses under heavy workload and circadian disruption. Nevertheless, the dramatic decrease in psychosocial communication during late missions could be an early warning sign of crew fragmentation that could hinder cohesion and adaptability to malfunctions, environmental disruptions, or schedule demands.

The newly-developed Team Performance Task (TPT) has moved from initial software development into an early application phase as a simple, rapid, and objective measure of voluntary cooperative behavior as an assay of group cohesion. Extensive laboratory tests have established the basic parameters and novel behavioral economic analysis methods for TPT data, and preliminary TPT tests in intact work-groups show that the task is easily learned and remarkably sensitive to task duration, external incentives, and stable inter-crew differences. Additional larger-scale validation efforts are ongoing both domestically and with ESA-supported international partners, and reveal the TPT's ability to objectively discriminate between 3-person groups composed of friends versus groups composed of strangers.

Plans for the final year of this grant cycle include completing the TPT "Familiar-Stranger" validation study, assessing the circadian rhythm of cohesion, and tracking the development of cohesion over time in newly formed PES simulation crews with embedded TPT sessions throughout training and repeated missions over several months.