What is Macrocognition
Definitional text excerpted from Letsky, Warner, Fiore, Rosen, and Salas (2007)
Letsky, M., Warner, N., Fiore, S. M., Rosen, M. A., & Salas, E. (2007). Macrocognition in Complex Team Problem Solving. Proceedings of the 12th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (12th ICCRTS), Newport, RI, June 2007. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Defense Command and Control Research Program.
Defining Macrocognition
Within the field of cognitive engineering, theorists have proposed the term "macrocognition" to describe how cognition emerges in natural environments. This line of thinking is essentially based upon the work of Cacciabue and Hollnagel (1995) who specifically noted: "Macrocognition refers to the study of the role of cognition in realistic tasks, that is, in interacting with the environment" (p. 57). Klein and colleagues have continued to argue that contextually bound cognitive processes (e.g., sense making, uncertainty management) must be studied in natural settings (Klein et al., 2003). These are environments in which complex and emergent cognitive processes arise (i.e., macrocognitive processes), as opposed to "micro-cognitive" processes described as cognition used in laboratory studies. We extend this theorizing and adopt the more recent thinking on macrocognition in teams. Here the term is used to capture cognition in collaborative contexts. In their theoretical and empirical analysis of collaborative problem solving, Warner, Letsky, and Cowen (2005) argue that macrocognition in teams encompasses both internalized and externalized processes, which occur during team interaction. Here we provide a more in-depth definition of how we are conceptualizing this complex cognitive and collaborative activity and we include a listing of the defining characteristics associated with macrocognition.
Macrocognition is defined as the internalized and externalized high-level mental processes employed by teams to create new knowledge during complex, one-of-a-kind, collaborative problem solving. High-level is defined as the process of combining, visualizing, and aggregating information to resolve ambiguity in support of the discovery of new knowledge and relationships.
Internalized processes are those higher-level mental processes that occur at the individual or the team level, and which are not expressed through external means such as writing, speaking, gesture, and can only be measured indirectly via qualitative metrics (e.g., cognitive mapping, think aloud protocols, multi-dimensional scaling, etc.), or surrogate quantitative metrics (e.g., pupil size, galvanic skin response, fMRI, etc.). Nonetheless, these processes can become either fully or partially externalized when they are expressed in a form that relates to other individual's reference/interpretation systems (e.g. language, icons, gestures, boundary objects).
Externalized processes are those higher-level mental processes that occur at the individual or the team level, and which are associated only with actions that are observable and measurable in a consistent, reliable, repeatable manner or through the conventions of the subject domain having standardized meanings. Although the term macrocognition consists of some of the same characteristics embodied in the recent theories of human cognition, it brings these together along with several unique characteristics (see Table 1 for a listing of the macrocognitive characteristics present in collaborative teams).
Table 1. Characteristics of macrocognition in teams.
| Unit of Analysis | The unit of analysis includes both the individual team member and the whole team because of the unique macrocognitive processes operating at the individual and team level. |
| Level of Analysis | Cognitive activities are analyzed at a high level because of the limitations in using micro cognitive processes to explain higher order decision making mechanisms; additionally, it may be at this level that critical variance emerges, a variance important to differentiating good from poor performers. |
| Measurement Focus | Focus on both internalized and externalized mental processes employed by team members during complex, one-of-a-kind, collaborative problem solving. |
| Method of Study | Macro cognitive processes can be empirically studied in the lab and in operational field settings given domain rich collaborative problem solving scenarios. |
| Nature of Occurrence | Macro cognitive processes (i.e. internalized and externalized) occur during team member interaction (i.e. socially and collaboratively mediated) and are influenced by the artifacts in the environment. |
| Dynamic Feature | Macro cognitive processes develop and change over time. |
| Environmental Context | Macro cognitive processes are domain dependent and collaboration environment dependent (e.g. face-to-face versus asynchronous, distributed collaboration tools). |
Stages of Collaboration in Macrocognition
We use the model illustrated in Warner, Letsky, and Cowen (2005) which conceptualized a set of stages describing collaboration - Knowledge Construction, Collaborative Team Problem Solving, Team Consensus, and Outcome Evaluation & Revision (see descriptions below). We are using these stages to help guide our identification of pertinent macrocognitive constructs within and across these stages. The stages are not sequential but are very dynamic with the flow of communication following virtually any path.
- Knowledge Construction begins by identifying the relevant domain information required, selecting the required team members, setting up the communication environment necessary to address the problem, individual team members developing their own mental model of the problem, and developing individual and team task knowledge.
- Collaborative Team Problem Solving is where the majority of collaboration occurs among team members. The team's main objective in this stage is to develop viable solutions to the problem.
- Team Consensus is to achieve team agreement among several viable solution alternatives to the problem.
- Outcome Evaluation and Revision. The main objective of this stage is to analyze, test and validate the agreed upon team solution against the goal requirement(s) and exit criteria. Included in this stage is an iteration loop for deriving other solutions for the problem if necessary.
References
Cacciabue, P. C. & Hollnagel, E. (1995). Simulation of cognition: Applications. In J. M. Hoc, P. C., Cacciabue, & E. Hollnagel (Eds.), Expertise and Technology: Issues in Cognition and Human-Computer Cooperation (pp. 55 - 74). Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
Klein, G., Ross, K. G., Moon, B. M., Klein, D. E., Hoffman, R. R., & Hollnagel, E. (May/June 2003). Macrocognition. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 81-85.
Letsky, M., Warner, N., Fiore, S.M., Rosen, M.A., & Salas, E. (2007). Macrocognition in Complex Team Problem Solving. Proceedings of the 11th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (ICCRTS), Cambridge: UK.
Warner, N., Letsky, M., & Cowen, M. (2005). Cognitive model of team collaboration: Macro-cognitive focus. Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomic Society. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
