Effects of Presentation Modality on Team Awareness and Choice Accuracy in a Simulated Police Team Task

Team awareness is important when asking team members for assistance, for example in the police domain. This paper investigates how presentation modality (visual or auditory) of relevant team information and communication influences team awareness and choice accuracy in a collaborative team task. An experimental prototype was created and implemented, which provided a visual overview of location, availability, means of transportation and expertise of team members as well as ongoing team communication. In a simulated police task in a virtual environment, this prototype was compared to current auditory support, common in police practice. Results show that a visual overview of team information improves choice accuracy, while auditory information presentation improves team awareness. In designing support systems for the professional domain, this trade-off should be carefully considered.