Temporal patterns of mental model convergence: implications for distributed teams interacting in electronic collaboration spaces.

Objective: Our objective is to capture temporal patterns in mental model convergence processes and differences in these patterns between distributed teams using an electronic collaboration space and face-to-face teams with no interface.

Background: Distributed teams, as sociotechnical systems, collaborate via technology to work on their task. The way in which they process information to inform their mental models may be examined via team communication and may unfold differently than it does in face-to-face teams.

Toward an understanding of macrocognition in teams: predicting processes in complex collaborative contexts.

Objective: This article presents a model for predicting complex collaborative processes as they arise in one-of-a-kind problem-solving situations to predict performance outcomes. The goal is to outline a set of key processes and their interrelationship and to describe how these can be used to predict collaboration processes embedded within problem-solving contexts.

Background: Teams are increasingly called upon to address complex problem-solving tasks in novel situations.