What is Shared Mental Model

Unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) are becoming part of the aviation landscape, taking on the dirty, dangerous, or dull operations traditionally completed by military and specialized civil aircraft. These operations often require high levels of team coordination. Team coordination is facilitated when team members share a mental model of group tasks and the individual crewmember's responsibilities in the performance of these tasks. The shared mental model is therefore critical for unmanned aircraft system teams to complete their operational objectives. The ability to forge a shared mental model is complicated by the diverse and often distributed nature of unmanned aircraft system teams. Before strategies can be developed to create accurate shared mental models, researchers must effectively measure shared mental models. This chapter explores the measurement of shared mental models in UASs.