Examining the effects of communication training and team composition on the decision making of Patriot air defense teams

An experiment investigating the effect of communication training and three group composition variables was performed with Patriot air defense teams for two different types of aircraft identification tasks. It was predicted that communication training would significantly enhance communication quantity and quality and, in turn, team performance for both tasks. Although the training did sometimes improve team communication processes, it did not improve team performance. The variable that had the biggest positive effect on communication quality and team performance was the number of hours a team had worked together. This effect was only found, however, for the type of task for which Patriot teams routinely train. It did not transfer to the less frequent and more cognitively stressing task where there is conflicting information about unknown aircraft, as in the USS Vincennes tragedy.