Articulating and Understanding the Development of a Team Mental Model in a Distributed Medium

Abstract

Because teams are constantly evolving, we must continue to work towards understanding team cognition development. One particular example of this is the continued efforts towards understanding developmental differences in co-located and distributed mediums. Both of these settings are imperative and critical to teamwork. As individuals become more mobile and less physically connected, supporting teamwork in distributed settings is becoming more and more important. In this paper, we present a study focused on the development of a team mental model (TMM) of collaborative information seeking (CIS) in a distributed setting. The study’s findings provide insights into how a TMM specific to CIS develops within a distributed medium, highlighting specific aspects that help and hurt development. Concluding thoughts are presented with the aim to further understand how TMMs develop differently within the contexts of co-located and distributed mediums.

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