Modeling the Neurodynamics of Submarine Piloting and Navigation Teams

Modeling the Neurodynamics of Submarine Piloting and Navigation Teams Modeling the Neurodynamics of Submarine Piloting and Navigation Teams Organizations engage in complex, dynamic activities that require the involvement of highly-trained, wellorganized, cognitively-ready teams of individuals. From the perspective of complexity science, such teams can be thought of as self-organized flows of information that create a bridge between biological processes and broader societal activities. As team members interact, these information flows, which can be turbulent, organize temporarily around common goals only to change form again as both the task and environment evolve. This proposal seeks to determine how these information flows can be quantified and tracked at multiple levels as teams develop expertise. For these studies, we have chosen to study Submarine Piloting and Navigation teams at the USN Submarine School in Groton, CT. Both Junior Officers in training and experienced submarine navigation teams regularly perform high fidelity, complex navigation simulations as part of required training. In this project, we will determine what it means to develop team expertise simultaneously from both a local, biological perspective and a global, behavioral perspective using neurophysiologic measures of cognitive engagement and workload and communication analysis.