Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2006
2006 Paper No 2859 Page 1 of 10
Information Distribution to Improve Team Performance in Military
Helicopter Operations: An Experimental Study
Brian K. S
erlin
Ph.D. Am
R. Pritchet
Ph.D.
De
artment of S
stems En
ineerin
School of Industrial and S
stems En
ineerin
United States Militar
Academ
, West Point, New Yor
Geor
ia Institute of Technolo
, Atlanta, Geor
ia
Brian.Sperling@usma.edu amy.pritchett@ae.gatech.edu
ABSTRACT
Changes in task requirements and resulting system capabilities have led to the addition of crewmembers,
information displays, and monitoring and coordination requirements in many domains. The overarching objective
of this experimental study was to test whether providing task relevant information to individual team members in a
time critical environment, while limiting their access to non task-relevant information, would change team
interactions by developing complementary team mental models and consequently, improve performance. The
results of this experiment provide supporting evidence for this hypothesis and give insight into a new understanding
of how the distribution of information among team members effects the development of shared expectations and
information requirements, team and individual performance, and communications that have not been empirically
documented elsewhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Brian K. Sperling, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Systems Engineering, USMA.
Education: Ph.D. Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
MS Operations Research, Air Force Institute of Technology
BS Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Military Academy
Military and Research Experience: Brian Sperling has been an officer in the U.S. Army for seventeen years. He has
focused his research in the area of Decision Analysis & Decision-Making from a Human Factors and Human
Computer Interaction approach. He has conducted and continues to conduct research on Army Casualty Assistance
System design and organization, Hazard Identification, and Information Distribution as it relates to Team
Performance. Brian is an Army Aviator and qualified in the AH-1 Cobra and AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopters.
He has working experience as a Platoon Leader during Operation Desert Storm, an Attack Helicopter Company
Commander and Operations Officer. While at the United States Military Academy, he developed interactive class
instruction in Decision Support Systems and Computer Aided Systems Analysis. He also served as
the Operations
Research and Systems Analysis Division Chief for the Combat Readiness Center
where he personally
conducted and led numerous research efforts focused on reducing accidental personnel losses.
Amy R. Pritchett, David S. Lewis Jr Associate Professor of Cognitive Engineering, Department of Aerospace
Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Education: Ph. D. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amy R. Pritchett is an associate professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering and a joint associate professor in
the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research encompasses
cockpit design, including advanced decision aids; procedure design as a mechanism to define and test the operation
of complex, multi-agent systems (e.g. air traffic control, launch vehicle mission control); and simulation of complex
systems to assess changes in emergent system behavior in response to implementation of new information
technology. Dr. Pritchett will particularly contribute to the committee’s investigation of system modeling and human
automation interaction. She has previously served on the NRC Committee for Vision 2050.
