Social-based versus shared situation awareness-based approaches to the understanding of team cognitive research in HCI

Recent efforts in the area of human-computer interaction have focused on the role of shared cognition in team collaboration and performance. Following from this interest, two major approaches to shared cognition have emerged: social-based shared cognition and shared situation awareness-based cognition. Social-based shared cognition can be described as the extent to which dyads and groups possess, create and utilize social aspects of cognition that involve coordination between individuals, artefacts and the environment. Shared situation awareness-based cognition is distinct from that of the social-based type in that it refers to shared cognition in a team with the same interpretation of ongoing events, based on shared situation awareness requirements. While a number of conceptual models and frameworks have been formulated for team cognition in human-computer interaction, the appropriate use of shared cognitive models has eluded researchers. The main aim of this paper is to describe the kinds of shared cognitive models that belong to both the social-based and shared situation awareness-based approaches. The secondary aim is to differentiate both shared cognitive approaches based on seven distinguishing properties: the main underlying theoretical foundation, core essence, general purpose, shared cognition models, domain application, types of cognitive environment and types of cognitive systems and applications. The design implications for team cognitive research in human-computer interaction are discussed. For HCI researchers interested in studying team cognition, this work shows the ways of selecting the appropriate shared cognitive models for specific types of systems and applications.