Individual and team susceptibility to change blindness

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Psychology
• Military Science

Background:

• Operators in command and control (C2) environments are prone to change blindness.
• Team-based change blindness in C2 has been understudied.
• This study examines change blindness in individuals versus teams in a simulated C2 display.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate change blindness in individuals and teams within a simulated military command and control (C2) context.
• To assess the impact of communication on team performance in detecting display changes.
• To evaluate the effect of teamwork and communication on operator workload.

Main Methods:

• A change-detection task was administered to individuals and three-person teams.
• Team conditions included active communication or no communication.
• The task involved monitoring flicker sequences of displays with varying numbers of icons (6, 12, 24, 48) for positional changes.

Main Results:

• Communicating teams showed a significant advantage, with higher correct detection rates (95%) compared to non-communicating teams (80%) and individuals (79%).
• While teams remained susceptible to change blindness, communication mitigated this susceptibility.
• Communicating teams reported substantially lower global workload (24.08) than non-communicating teams (38.44) and individuals (47.18).

Conclusions:

• Teamwork and communication are crucial for mitigating change blindness and reducing workload in C2 operations.
• Findings support the development of strategies and tools to enhance team performance and reduce susceptibility to change blindness.
• The study underscores the benefits of collaborative environments in complex operational settings.