Exploration of Team Information Processing in a Dynamic Group Choice Task Involving Uncertainty

摘要

The purpose of this research was to address the problem of facilitating group decision performance in a dynamic task situation which involves uncertainty through the use of graphic information presentation and decision heuristics. The investigation involved a laboratory experiment with groups of three performing a dynamic group choice task (the Team Resource Allocation Task). Each team completed a total of 32 trials, half of which were presented at a fast rate of speed and half at a more moderate speed. The teams had insufficient resources to respond to every event presented, so they were advised to identify and commit resources to the most valuable combinations of events. Visual coding schemes for presenting the events varied between teams as did the presence or absence of decision heuristics provided by the researcher. The most important finding of this research was that aids which guided the decision process had a much greater impact on decision quality in a dynamic group choice task than did the form in which information was presented. This finding suggests that how decision makers use technology itself for supporting decision making. Additional research should be applied to exploring how to aid the decision process. Other findings included the following: (1) Teams performed better with practice, (3) Heuristics had a greater effect on decision quality under moderate time stress than under moderate time stress than under high time stress, and (4) Heuristics had an immediate and lasting effect on decision quality. (SDW)