The Effects of Automation on Team Performance and Team Coordination

dc.contributor.advisorMichael G. Kay, Committee Memberen_US
dc.contributor.advisorDavid B. Kaber, Committee Chairen_US
dc.contributor.advisorGary Mirka, Committee Memberen_US
dc.contributor.advisorSharolyn Converse Lane, Committee Memberen_US
dc.contributor.authorWright, Melanie Clayen_US
dc.date.accessioned2010-04-02T19:15:58Z
dc.date.available2010-04-02T19:15:58Z
dc.date.issued2002-07-15en_US
dc.degree.disciplineIndustrial Engineeringen_US
dc.degree.leveldissertationen_US
dc.degree.namePhDen_US
dc.description.abstractThe advancement of technology has led to an increased use of automation in a number of work domains, including team environments. However, assessment of the effects of automation on teamwork has been primarily limited to the aviation domain (comparing early conventional aircraft models with more advanced aircraft cockpits) and studies have produced conflicting information regarding the impact of automation on team performance, communication, and coordination. To more fully understand the implications of automation on system performance, researchers have begun to develop taxonomies and models of automation so that specific forms of automation can be defined and evaluated. A model proposed by Parasuraman et al. (2000) considers automation as it is applied to stages of information processing, including information acquisition, information analysis, decision selection, and action implementation. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of automation as applied to these different stages of information processing on the performance and coordination of teams in a complex decision making task. A simulated Theatre Defense Task in which teams protect a home base from enemy attack was used as a test-bed for this evaluation. Two team members were required to work together to share information in order to successfully complete the task. One team member monitored incoming aircraft on a radarscope and used missiles to shoot down enemy aircraft. A second team member monitored information provided by reconnaissance aircraft to classify the incoming aircraft as enemy or friendly. Four automation conditions were designed that compared different degrees of information acquisition, information analysis, and decision selection automation. Two levels of difficulty, determined by the number of aircraft presented, were used in the experiment. Dependent measures for the experiment included team effectiveness, quantity of team communication, team coordination ratings by outside observers, and task and team workload ratings. The results of the experiment revealed that different forms of automation have different effects on teamwork. Automation of information acquisition caused a decrease in the total amount of communication and an increase in the ratio of information transferred compared to information requested between team members. Automation of information analysis resulted in higher team coordination ratings. Automation of decision selection led to better team effectiveness under low levels of task difficulty but at the cost of higher workload. The fact that differing forms of automation had different influences on team performance in this research aids in explaining conflicting historical findings regarding the effects of automation on teamwork. The results of this research may have utility for the design of complex systems used in team environments.en_US
dc.identifier.otheretd-06182002-202710en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://www.lib.ncsu.edu/resolver/1840.16/5567
dc.rightsI hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.en_US
dc.subjectAutomationen_US
dc.subjecthuman-automation interactionen_US
dc.subjectteam coordinationen_US
dc.subjectteamsen_US
dc.subjectlevels of automationen_US
dc.titleThe Effects of Automation on Team Performance and Team Coordinationen_US

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