Team Performance in Distributed Virtual Environments

The U.S. Army is using virtual simulations for mission planning, training, rehearsal, and concept development Viral environment (VE) technology can provide simulated real world activities for dismounted soldiers. One issue in the use of distributed simulations is whether team members learn, perform, and transfer their skills in distributed situations in the same ways as individuals in local situations. In this experiment, local and distributed teams completed a series of mission rehearsals in a VE over two days. Eighteen, two- person teams of college students performed synthetic tasks representative of tasks performed by police, emergency response, and military teams. All participants were trained to criterion in a VE before being assigned to a team. Biographical information and subjective self-report questionnaires were administered before, during, and after training and mission sessions. Local teams interacted face-to-face between mission rehearsal sessions, while distributed teams only interacted by phone during the after action review session following each mission. Local teams performed significantly better than distributed teams on several collective task measures over the repeated missions. Simulator sickness and presence during the mission rehearsals were also investigated.Army Research Inst for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Alexandria VA is the author of 'Team Performance in Distributed Virtual Environments' with ISBN 9781423550433 and ISBN 1423550439.