Common ground in collaborative intelligence analysis: an empirical study

This paper reports an empirical exploration of how different configurations of collaboration technology affect peoples’ ability to construct and maintain common ground while conducting collaborative intelligence analysis work. Prior studies of collaboration technology have typically focused on simpler conversational tasks, or ones that involve physical manipulation, rather than the complex sensemaking and inference involved in intelligence work. The study explores the effects of video communication and shared visual workspace (SVW) on the negotiation of common ground by distributed teams collaborating in real time on intelligence analysis tasks. The experimental study uses a 2x2 factorial, between-subjects design involving two independent variables: presence or absence of Video and SVW. Two-member teams were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental media conditions and worked to complete several intelligence analysis tasks involving multiple, complex intelligence artefacts. Teams with access to the shared visual workspace could view their teammates’ eWhiteboards. Our results demonstrate a significant effect for the shared visual workspace: the effort of conversational grounding is reduced in the cases where SVW is available. However, there were no main effects for video and no interaction between the two variables. Also, we found that the “conversational grounding effort” required tended to decrease over the course of the task.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Sean Xavier Laurence

Simon Attfield

Bob Fields

Conference

Publication date: July 2016

Publication date (Print): July 2016

Pages: 1-11

Affiliations

[0001]Department of Computer Science, Middlesex University, London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2016.30

SO-VID: a44ba069-d128-4fbc-9352-11cd567e916b

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 30th International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 30

Conference location: Bournemouth University, Poole, UK

Conference date: 11 - 15 July 2016

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Fusion

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2016.30

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

A-S. AxelssonÅ. AbelinR. Schroeder 2003 Communication in virtual environments: Establishing common ground for a collaborative spatial task The 6th International Workshop on Presence Denmark 6-8 October 2003 Sweden Chalmers Publication Library
S.E. Brennan 2005 How conversation is shaped by visual and spoken evidence J.C. TrueswellM.K. Tanenhaus Approaches to studying world-situated language use: Bridging the language-as-product and language-as-action traditions Cambridge MIT Press 95 29
M. CherubiniJ. Van-Der-PolP. Dillenbourg 2005 Grounding is not shared understanding: Distinguishing grounding at an utterance and knowledge level Proceedings of the 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context Paris, France 5-8 July 2005 Berlin Springer 11-pages
H.H. Clark 1996 Using language Cambridge, England Cambridge university press
G. ConvertinoH.M. MentisM.B. RossonA. SlavkovicJ.M. Carroll 2009 Supporting content and process common ground in computer-supported teamwork Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Boston 4-9 April 2009 New York ACM 2339 2348
S.R. FussellR.E. KrautJ. Siegel 2000 Coordination of communication: Effects of shared visual context on collaborative work Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work Philadelphia 2-6 December 2000 New York ACM 21 30
S.C. HayneL.J. TroupS.A. McComb 2011 “Wheres Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams Information Systems Frontiers 13 1 89 100
R.J. Heuer 2005 Limits of intelligence analysis Orbis 49 1 75 94
Y-a KangJ. Stasko 2011 Characterizing the intelligence analysis process: Informing visual analytics design through a longitudinal field study Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST). Proceedings of 2011 IEEE Conference Providence, USA 23-28 October 2011 New Jersey, USA: IEEE 21 30
G. KleinB. MoonR.R. Hoffman 2006 Making sense of sensemaking 2: A macrocognitive model IEEE Intelligent Systems 21 5 88 92
S.X. Laurence 2015 Analyzing Non-Collocated Synchronous Shared Visual Workspace-Mediated Interaction and Effects on Conversational Grounding — a study on collaborative intelligence analysis A Ph.D. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Middlesex University for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Computer Science London Middlesex University http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/
S. ModiP. AbbottS. Counsell 2013 Negotiating common ground in distributed agile development: A case study perspective Global Software Engineering (ICGSE). 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference Bari, Italy 26-29 August 2013 80 89
A. Monk 2008 Common ground in electronically mediated conversation Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics California Morgan and Claypool Publishers 1 1 1 50
J. Richards 2010 The Art and Science of Intelligence Analysis New York Oxford University Press
E.M. RothJ.D. PfautzS.M. MahoneyG.M. PowellE.C. CarlsonS.L. GuarinoT.C. FichtlS.S. Potter 2010 Framing and contextualizing information requests: Problem formulation as part of the intelligence analysis process Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making 4 3 210 239
J.P. Sullivan 2005 Terrorism early warning and co-production of counterterrorism intelligence Proceedings Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies 20th Anniversary InternationalConference. Montreal, Canada 20-22 October 2005 Zurich ISN ETH Zurich 1
S.M. Taylor 2005 The several worlds of the intelligence analyst International Conference on Intelligence Analysis 2005 McClean, VA 2-6 May 2005
G. TecuciM. BoicuD. SchumD. Marcu 2010 Coping with the complexity of intelligence analysis: cognitive assistants for evidence-based reasoning 7 Research Report
N. WarnerL. BurkmanC. H. Biron 2008 Special operations reconnaissance (SOR) scenario: Intelligence analysis and mission planning. Maryland, USA United States Navy Tech/Rep. NAWCADPAX/TM-2008/184
K. XuS. AttfieldT. Jankun-KellyA. WheatPH. NguyenN. Selvaraj 2015 Analytic provenance for sensemaking: a research agenda Computer Graphics And Applications, IEEE 35 3 56 64

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] A-S. AxelssonÅ. AbelinR. Schroeder 2003 Communication in virtual environments: Establishing common ground for a collaborative spatial task The 6th International Workshop on Presence Denmark 6-8 October 2003 Sweden Chalmers Publication Library

[2] S.E. Brennan 2005 How conversation is shaped by visual and spoken evidence J.C. TrueswellM.K. Tanenhaus Approaches to studying world-situated language use: Bridging the language-as-product and language-as-action traditions Cambridge MIT Press 95 29

[3] M. CherubiniJ. Van-Der-PolP. Dillenbourg 2005 Grounding is not shared understanding: Distinguishing grounding at an utterance and knowledge level Proceedings of the 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context Paris, France 5-8 July 2005 Berlin Springer 11-pages

[4] H.H. Clark 1996 Using language Cambridge, England Cambridge university press

[5] G. ConvertinoH.M. MentisM.B. RossonA. SlavkovicJ.M. Carroll 2009 Supporting content and process common ground in computer-supported teamwork Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Boston 4-9 April 2009 New York ACM 2339 2348

[6] S.R. FussellR.E. KrautJ. Siegel 2000 Coordination of communication: Effects of shared visual context on collaborative work Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work Philadelphia 2-6 December 2000 New York ACM 21 30

[7] S.C. HayneL.J. TroupS.A. McComb 2011 “Wheres Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams Information Systems Frontiers 13 1 89 100

[8] R.J. Heuer 2005 Limits of intelligence analysis Orbis 49 1 75 94

[9] Y-a KangJ. Stasko 2011 Characterizing the intelligence analysis process: Informing visual analytics design through a longitudinal field study Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST). Proceedings of 2011 IEEE Conference Providence, USA 23-28 October 2011 New Jersey, USA: IEEE 21 30

[10] G. KleinB. MoonR.R. Hoffman 2006 Making sense of sensemaking 2: A macrocognitive model IEEE Intelligent Systems 21 5 88 92

[11] S.X. Laurence 2015 Analyzing Non-Collocated Synchronous Shared Visual Workspace-Mediated Interaction and Effects on Conversational Grounding — a study on collaborative intelligence analysis A Ph.D. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Middlesex University for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Computer Science London Middlesex University http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/

[12] S. ModiP. AbbottS. Counsell 2013 Negotiating common ground in distributed agile development: A case study perspective Global Software Engineering (ICGSE). 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference Bari, Italy 26-29 August 2013 80 89

[13] A. Monk 2008 Common ground in electronically mediated conversation Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics California Morgan and Claypool Publishers 1 1 1 50

[14] J. Richards 2010 The Art and Science of Intelligence Analysis New York Oxford University Press

[15] E.M. RothJ.D. PfautzS.M. MahoneyG.M. PowellE.C. CarlsonS.L. GuarinoT.C. FichtlS.S. Potter 2010 Framing and contextualizing information requests: Problem formulation as part of the intelligence analysis process Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making 4 3 210 239

[16] J.P. Sullivan 2005 Terrorism early warning and co-production of counterterrorism intelligence Proceedings Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies 20th Anniversary InternationalConference. Montreal, Canada 20-22 October 2005 Zurich ISN ETH Zurich 1

[17] S.M. Taylor 2005 The several worlds of the intelligence analyst International Conference on Intelligence Analysis 2005 McClean, VA 2-6 May 2005

[18] G. TecuciM. BoicuD. SchumD. Marcu 2010 Coping with the complexity of intelligence analysis: cognitive assistants for evidence-based reasoning 7 Research Report

[19] N. WarnerL. BurkmanC. H. Biron 2008 Special operations reconnaissance (SOR) scenario: Intelligence analysis and mission planning. Maryland, USA United States Navy Tech/Rep. NAWCADPAX/TM-2008/184

[20] K. XuS. AttfieldT. Jankun-KellyA. WheatPH. NguyenN. Selvaraj 2015 Analytic provenance for sensemaking: a research agenda Computer Graphics And Applications, IEEE 35 3 56 64

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