The Expanded Cognitive Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) applied to Team Decision-Making in Emergency Preparedness Simulation

The study demonstrates the use of the expanded TLX instrument (Helton, Funke & Knott, 2014) for cognitive and team-related workload self-assessment of 38 participants, solving the UNISDR – ONU stop disasters game simulation. Subjects in one group (GF; n=30) performed group decision-making without prior individual practice on the simulation. A subset of GF participants (n=6) subsequently reiterated the simulation alone, reassessing their cognitive workload. Another group (IF; n=8) individually performed the simulation and reiterated it in groups. Most GF participants, moving from group to singly conditions, reported decreasing physical and temporal demands, unchanged self-assessed performance, and increased mental demands, effort and frustration. IF participants incurred increasing mental, physical and temporal demands, as well as increased effort, with decreasing frustration and better performance, from singly to group conditions. Team workload results differed across groups; GF had higher levels of reported team dissatisfaction, equivalent assessments of team support and lower assessments of coordination and communication demands coupled with decreased time sharing as well as lower team effectiveness, compared to IF. Results bear implications on training of decision- making teams; singly training team members preceding group training supports team-decision making effectiveness and individual performance within teams going through first stages of a system learning curve.