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Description
As technology enhances our communication capabilities, the number of distributed teams has risen in both public and private sectors. There is no doubt that these technological advancements have addressed a need for communication and collaboration of distributed teams. However, is all technology useful for effective collaboration? Are some methods (modalities)

As technology enhances our communication capabilities, the number of distributed teams has risen in both public and private sectors. There is no doubt that these technological advancements have addressed a need for communication and collaboration of distributed teams. However, is all technology useful for effective collaboration? Are some methods (modalities) of communication more conducive than others to effective performance and collaboration of distributed teams? Although previous literature identifies some differences in modalities, there is little research on geographically distributed mobile teams (DMTs) performing a collaborative task. To investigate communication and performance in this context, I developed the GeoCog system. This system is a mobile communications and collaboration platform enabling small, distributed teams of three to participate in a variant of the military-inspired game, "Capture the Flag". Within the task, teams were given one hour to complete as many "captures" as possible while utilizing resources to the advantage of the team. In this experiment, I manipulated the modality of communication across three conditions with text-based messaging only, vocal communication only, and a combination of the two conditions. It was hypothesized that bi-modal communication would yield superior performance compared to either single modality conditions. Results indicated that performance was not affected by modality. Further results, including communication analysis, are discussed within this paper.
ContributorsChampion, Michael (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Shope, Steven (Committee member) / Wu, Bing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
Preoperative team briefings have been suggested to be important for improving team performance in the operating room. Many high risk environments have accepted team briefings; however healthcare has been slower to follow. While applying briefings in the operating room has shown positive benefits including improved communication and perceptions of teamwork,

Preoperative team briefings have been suggested to be important for improving team performance in the operating room. Many high risk environments have accepted team briefings; however healthcare has been slower to follow. While applying briefings in the operating room has shown positive benefits including improved communication and perceptions of teamwork, most research has only focused on feasibility of implementation and not on understanding how the quality of briefings can impact subsequent surgical procedures. Thus, there are no formal protocols or methodologies that have been developed.

The goal of this study was to relate specific characteristics of team briefings back to objective measures of team performance. The study employed cognitive interviews, prospective observations, and principle component regression to characterize and model the relationship between team briefing characteristics and non-routine events (NREs) in gynecological surgery. Interviews were conducted with 13 team members representing each role on the surgical team and data were collected for 24 pre-operative team briefings and 45 subsequent surgical cases. The findings revealed that variations within the team briefing are associated with differences in team-related outcomes, namely NREs, during the subsequent surgical procedures. Synthesis of the data highlighted three important trends which include the need to promote team communication during the briefing, the importance of attendance by all surgical team members, and the value of holding a briefing prior to each surgical procedure. These findings have implications for development of formal briefing protocols.

Pre-operative team briefings are beneficial for team performance in the operating room. Future research will be needed to continue understanding this relationship between how briefings are conducted and team performance to establish more consistent approaches and as well as for the continuing assessment of team briefings and other similar team-related events in the operating room.
ContributorsHildebrand, Emily A (Author) / Branaghan, Russell J (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Hallbeck, M. Susan (Committee member) / Bekki, Jennifer M (Committee member) / Blocker, Renaldo C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
In this research work, a novel control system strategy for the robust control of an unmanned ground vehicle is proposed. This strategy is motivated by efforts to mitigate the problem for scenarios in which the human operator is unable to properly communicate with the vehicle. This novel control system strategy

In this research work, a novel control system strategy for the robust control of an unmanned ground vehicle is proposed. This strategy is motivated by efforts to mitigate the problem for scenarios in which the human operator is unable to properly communicate with the vehicle. This novel control system strategy consisted of three major components: I.) Two independent intelligent controllers, II.) An intelligent navigation system, and III.) An intelligent controller tuning unit. The inner workings of the first two components are based off the Brain Emotional Learning (BEL), which is a mathematical model of the Amygdala-Orbitofrontal, a region in mammalians brain known to be responsible for emotional learning. Simulation results demonstrated the implementation of the BEL model to be very robust, efficient, and adaptable to dynamical changes in its application as controller and as a sensor fusion filter for an unmanned ground vehicle. These results were obtained with significantly less computational cost when compared to traditional methods for control and sensor fusion. For the intelligent controller tuning unit, the implementation of a human emotion recognition system was investigated. This system was utilized for the classification of driving behavior. Results from experiments showed that the affective states of the driver are accurately captured. However, the driver's affective state is not a good indicator of the driver's driving behavior. As a result, an alternative method for classifying driving behavior from the driver's brain activity was explored. This method proved to be successful at classifying the driver's behavior. It obtained results comparable to the common approach through vehicle parameters. This alternative approach has the advantage of directly classifying driving behavior from the driver, which is of particular use in UGV domain because the operator's information is readily available. The classified driving mode was used tune the controllers' performance to a desired mode of operation. Such qualities are required for a contingency control system that would allow the vehicle to operate with no operator inputs.
ContributorsVargas-Clara, Alvaro (Author) / Redkar, Sangram (Thesis advisor) / McKenna, Anna (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Although current urban search and rescue (USAR) robots are little more than remotely controlled cameras, the end goal is for them to work alongside humans as trusted teammates. Natural language communications and performance data are collected as a team of humans works to carry out a simulated search and rescue

Although current urban search and rescue (USAR) robots are little more than remotely controlled cameras, the end goal is for them to work alongside humans as trusted teammates. Natural language communications and performance data are collected as a team of humans works to carry out a simulated search and rescue task in an uncertain virtual environment. Conditions are tested emulating a remotely controlled robot versus an intelligent one. Differences in performance, situation awareness, trust, workload, and communications are measured. The Intelligent robot condition resulted in higher levels of performance and operator situation awareness (SA).
ContributorsBartlett, Cade Earl (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Kambhampati, Subbarao (Committee member) / Wu, Bing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
The objective of this project was to evaluate human factors based cognitive aids on endoscope reprocessing. The project stems from recent failures in reprocessing (cleaning) endoscopes, contributing to the spread of harmful bacterial and viral agents between patients. Three themes were found to represent a majority of problems:

The objective of this project was to evaluate human factors based cognitive aids on endoscope reprocessing. The project stems from recent failures in reprocessing (cleaning) endoscopes, contributing to the spread of harmful bacterial and viral agents between patients. Three themes were found to represent a majority of problems: 1) lack of visibility (parts and tools were difficult to identify), 2) high memory demands, and 3) insufficient user feedback. In an effort to improve completion rate and eliminate error, cognitive aids were designed utilizing human factors principles that would replace existing manufacturer visual aids. Then, a usability test was conducted, which compared the endoscope reprocessing performance of novices using the standard manufacturer-provided visual aids and the new cognitive aids. Participants successfully completed 87.1% of the reprocessing procedure in the experimental condition with the use of the cognitive aids, compared to 46.3% in the control condition using only existing support materials. Twenty-five of sixty subtasks showed significant improvement in completion rates. When given a cognitive aid designed with human factors principles, participants were able to more successfully complete the reprocessing task. This resulted in an endoscope that was more likely to be safe for patient use.
ContributorsJolly, Jonathan D (Author) / Branaghan, Russell J (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Sanchez, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
The wood-framing trade has not sufficiently been investigated to understand the work task sequencing and coordination among crew members. A new mental framework for a performing crew was developed and tested through four case studies. This framework ensured similar team performance as the one provided by task micro-scheduling in planning

The wood-framing trade has not sufficiently been investigated to understand the work task sequencing and coordination among crew members. A new mental framework for a performing crew was developed and tested through four case studies. This framework ensured similar team performance as the one provided by task micro-scheduling in planning software. It also allowed evaluation of the effect of individual coordination within the crew on the crew's productivity. Using design information, a list of micro-activities/tasks and their predecessors was automatically generated for each piece of lumber in the four wood frames. The task precedence was generated by applying elementary geometrical and technological reasoning to each frame. Then, the duration of each task was determined based on observations from videotaped activities. Primavera's (P6) resource leveling rules were used to calculate the sequencing of tasks and the minimum duration of the whole activity for various crew sizes. The results showed quick convergence towards the minimum production time and allowed to use information from Building Information Models (BIM) to automatically establish the optimal crew sizes for frames. Late Start (LS) leveling priority rule gave the shortest duration in every case. However, the logic of LS tasks rule is too complex to be conveyed to the framing crew. Therefore, the new mental framework of a well performing framer was developed and tested to ensure high coordination. This mental framework, based on five simple rules, can be easily taught to the crew and ensures a crew productivity congruent with the one provided by the LS logic. The case studies indicate that once the worst framer in the crew surpasses the limit of 11% deviation from applying the said five rules, every additional percent of deviation reduces the productivity of the whole crew by about 4%.
ContributorsMaghiar, Marcel M (Author) / Wiezel, Avi (Thesis advisor) / Mitropoulos, Panagiotis (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
This thesis describes a synthetic task environment, CyberCog, created for the purposes of 1) understanding and measuring individual and team situation awareness in the context of a cyber security defense task and 2) providing a context for evaluating algorithms, visualizations, and other interventions that are intended to improve cyber situation

This thesis describes a synthetic task environment, CyberCog, created for the purposes of 1) understanding and measuring individual and team situation awareness in the context of a cyber security defense task and 2) providing a context for evaluating algorithms, visualizations, and other interventions that are intended to improve cyber situation awareness. CyberCog provides an interactive environment for conducting human-in-loop experiments in which the participants of the experiment perform the tasks of a cyber security defense analyst in response to a cyber-attack scenario. CyberCog generates the necessary performance measures and interaction logs needed for measuring individual and team cyber situation awareness. Moreover, the CyberCog environment provides good experimental control for conducting effective situation awareness studies while retaining realism in the scenario and in the tasks performed.
ContributorsRajivan, Prashanth (Author) / Femiani, John (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Lindquist, Timothy (Committee member) / Gary, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Research on priming has shown that a stimulus can cause people to behave according to the stereotype held about the stimulus. Two experiments were conducted in which the effects of elderly priming were tested by use of a driving simulator. In both experiments, participants drove through a simulated world guided

Research on priming has shown that a stimulus can cause people to behave according to the stereotype held about the stimulus. Two experiments were conducted in which the effects of elderly priming were tested by use of a driving simulator. In both experiments, participants drove through a simulated world guided by either an elderly or a younger female voice. The voices told the participants where to make each of six turns. Both experiments yielded slower driving speeds in the elderly voice condition. The effect was universal regardless of implicit and explicit attitudes towards elderly people.
ContributorsFoster, L Bryant (Author) / Branaghan, Russell (Thesis advisor) / Becker, David (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
There have been conflicting accounts of animation's facilitation in learning from instructional media, being at best no different if not hindering performance. Procedural motor learning represents one of the few the areas in which animations have shown to be facilitative. These studies examine the effects of instructional media (animation vs.

There have been conflicting accounts of animation's facilitation in learning from instructional media, being at best no different if not hindering performance. Procedural motor learning represents one of the few the areas in which animations have shown to be facilitative. These studies examine the effects of instructional media (animation vs. static), rotation (facing vs. over the shoulder) and spatial abilities (low vs. high spatial abilities) on two procedural motor tasks, knot tying and endoscope reprocessing. Results indicate that for all conditions observed in which participants engaged in procedural motor learning tasks, performance was significantly improved with animations over static images. Further, performance was greater for rotations of instructional media that did not require participants to perform a mental rotation under some circumstances. Interactions between Media x Rotation suggest that media that was animated and did not require a participant to mentally rotate led to improved performance. Individual spatial abilities were found to influence total steps correct and total number of errors made in the knot tying task, but this was not observed in the endoscope task. These findings have implications for the design of instructional media for procedural motor tasks and provide strong support for the usage of animations in this context.
ContributorsGarland, T. B (Author) / Sanchez, Chris A (Thesis advisor) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Branaghan, Russel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
Node-link diagrams are widely used to visualize the relational structure of real world datasets. As identical data can be visualized in infinite ways by simply changing the spatial arrangement of the nodes, one of the important research topics of the graph drawing community is to visualize the data in the

Node-link diagrams are widely used to visualize the relational structure of real world datasets. As identical data can be visualized in infinite ways by simply changing the spatial arrangement of the nodes, one of the important research topics of the graph drawing community is to visualize the data in the way that can facilitate people's comprehension. The last three decades have witnessed the growth of algorithms for automatic visualization. However, despite the popularity of node-link diagrams and the enthusiasm in improving computational efficiency, little is known about how people read these graphs and what factors (layout, size, density, etc.) have impact on their effectiveness (the usability aspect of the graph, e.g., are they easy to understand?). This thesis is comprehensive research to investigate the factors that affect people's understanding of node-link diagrams using eye-tracking methods. Three experiments were conducted, including 1) a pilot study with 22 participants to explore the layout and size effect; 2) an eye tracking experiment with 43 participants to investigate the layout, size and density effect on people's graph comprehension using abstract node-link diagram and generic tasks; and 3) an eye tracking experiment with the same participants to investigate the same effects using a real visualization analytic application. Results showed that participants' spatial reasoning ability had significant impact on people's graph reading performance. Layout, size, and density were all found to be significant effects under different task circumstances. The applicability of the eye tracking methods on visualization evaluation has been confirmed by providing detailed evidence that demonstrates the cognitive process of participants' graph reading behavior.
ContributorsLiu, Qing (Author) / McKenna, Anna (Thesis advisor) / Jennifer, Jennifer (Committee member) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015