Team Decision Making and the Tower of Hanoi: the Effects of Gender and Practice.
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted investigating the effects of gender and practice on team decision making while solving the Tower of Hanoi (TOH). The first experiment demonstrated that relevant practice on a 4-disk TOH wooden model, as compared to irrelevant practice using an Eight Puzzle, improves performance of individuals (20 females and 20 males) on a computerized 5-disk TOH and that males were faster than females at solving the TOH. The second experiment involved 84 two-person teams (84 females and 84 males) who solved the TOH in a design combining relevant practice gender (female, male, or neither) with gender mix (female-female, male-male, or female-male) resulting in 7 different treatment conditions (12 teams in each group). The results suggest that teams with males receiving relevant practice solve the puzzle in less overall moves and in a shorter overall time as compared to teams with females receiving relevant practice. Results from the analysis of the search space data suggest that the teams with females who have received relevant practice reverse more moves compared to teams with males receiving relevant practice. The verbal data indicate that males make more commands than females regardless of who receives relevant practice. These data were interpreted in the context of several theoretical approaches to the study of team decision making. Only 8 out of a possible 48 participants revealed to their teammate that they had some expertise (prior practice) in solving the TOH puzzle. This result is consistent with some of the aviation accident reports that indicate a crewmember had critical information or expertise that was not shared with the team and therefore a poor team decision was made. The application of the current methodology to more naturalistic situations is discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 27, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA302800
Entities
People
- John M. Barker Jr.
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology