The Role of Design Team Interaction Structure on In- dividual and Shared Mental Models

The interaction structure of problem solving teams in design and other domains, and its effects on ideation outcomes is a well-explored topic in the study of team cognition in problem solving and design. Much less is known on how changes in team interaction structure influence the development of mental models over the course of work on a problem. This study aims to understand the relationship between team interaction structure and mental model development by measuring the similarity of individual mental models across time with respect to the individual and other group members. Three-member design teams from upper-level engineering design courses worked either independently or interactively on a mechanical design task for either the 1 half or the 2 half of the design process. Participants were periodically interrupted for a written description of their mental models of the design process. Descriptions were analyzed with Latent Semantic Analysis to assess mental model convergence. Results show working together has a substantive impact on shared mental models of the design process, and team interaction was associated with more selfconsistent mental models of individual team members across time. Working independently was also associated with mental models that were more similar to final design outcomes. Implications for team interaction structure, mental model development, and design fixation are discussed.