ADS FORCE: Assessment and Development Strategies FOr team Rapid Cognitive Effectiveness

In modern warfare, the knowledge and skills of several individuals must interact with one another for successful mission execution. Therefore, military combat operations emphasize the use of teams, who are often expected to rapidly deploy together. Such teams must quickly become highly functioning, as characterized by high levels of team cognitive readiness and process. To address the need for newly formed teams to rapidly become cognitively ready and effective, the Aptima team proposes to develop the Assessment and Development Strategies FOr Rapid team Cognitive Effectiveness (ADS FORCE) system. This system contains both assessment and training strategies to help teams enhance their levels of cognitive readiness and team process at various points in development. Once complete, ADS FORCE will contain three stages, with one stage building upon the previous. Stage 1 will involve assessing newly formed teams while in a virtual world environment. Automated measurement approaches allow for the delivery of training strategies to the team leader that match the assessment data. Stage 2 will contain another round of automated assessment, to be followed by training suggestions for pre-deployment training. Finally, Stage 3 will contain assessment and training information for the team leader to use while in the field.