Potential Indicators of Team Trust Measured in a Next Generation Combat Vehicle Simulator

Author(s):

Harrison Philip Crowell, Daniel Forster, Steven Thurman, Kimberly Pollard, David Chhan, Angelique Scharine, Andrea Krausman, Shan Lakhmani, and Justin R Brooks

Abstract:

This report describes the analysis of subjective, physiological, and behavioral data as part of a project to assess team trust and identify potential indicators of team trust. The long-term goal of the project is to enhance human–autonomy teaming. The data came from a study of technology aids and crew size. In that study, Soldiers conducted various missions in a Next Generation Combat Vehicle simulator. For this report, approximately 300 variables were examined. The variables that correlated significantly with trust in human–human teams included heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, pupil size, speech affect, verbosity, affiliative language, and linguistic style matching. For human–autonomy teams, the variables that correlated significantly with trust included heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, frontal and posterior alpha modulated electroencephalogram signals, posterior theta band electroencephalogram signals, pupil size, eye fixation position, and speech descriptiveness. These results can guide the development of systems to monitor team trust and intervene if it becomes too low or too high.