Background and Applications

Team tasks such as air traffic control, emergency response, and military command-and-control can be characterized as cognitively complex and embedded in a socio-technical environment. Recent views that are opposed to studying behavior and cognition apart from the natural context in which it occurs (e.g., Hutchins, 1995; Zsambok, 1997) have also created a need for a new research paradigm that preserves task richness and complexity of work domain, yet provides more experimental control than typical field settings. STEs (synthetic task environments) or "research tasks constructed by systematic abstraction from a corresponding real-world task " (Martin, Lyon, & Schreiber 1998, p. 123) offer a solution. The objective of STEs is to be able to reproduce behavior and cognitive processes associated with these complex settings in the laboratory where some experimental control and measurement capabilities can be preserved. An STE is a task environment in which a number of different task scenarios can be simulated. Compared to simulations, STEs tend to be more task-centric (i.e., faithful to behavioral and cognitive dimensions of task) and less equipment-centric. A number of team STEs have been recently developed and funded primarily by the US military. In this chapter we describe a specific STE for teams and use it to illustrate the methodology involved in developing STEs. The STE we will describe is based on the task of ground operations of a UAV (uninhabited air vehicle) by three interdependent individuals: the AVO (air vehicle operator), the PLO (payload operator), and the DEMPC (data exploitation mission planning and communications operator) or navigator and mission planner. These individuals work together to accomplish the goal of navigating the UAV to a position to take reconnaissance photos of designated targets. W