Group Interaction in High Risk Environments

Professor Rainer Dietrich heads the Psycho-linguistic Experimental Laboratory of the Institute for German Language and Linguistics at the Humboldt University Berlin, Faculty of Arts II and has conducted a number of experiments on language processing. The specific objective of the latter is the structure of the production system and the time course of utterance production under conditions of workload. Traci Michelle Childress currently works as Co-ordinator for the GIHRE project at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany and as a freelance editor and writer.

Focuses on reciprocal relationships between humanity, environment, and technology with data from 7 interdisciplinary projects in aviation, nuclear power plants, and the hospital operating theatre. Answers how task load affects 1) interaction among members of a high risk team and 2) the results of a team's work. Provides groundwork for improvement i

Contents: Introduction, Rainer Dietrich and Traci M. Childress. Part I: Seven Perspectives on Teamwork: Group interaction under threat and high workload, Robert L. Helmreich and J. Bryan Sexton; Behavioral markers in analyzing team performance of cockpit crews, Ruth Hÿusler, Barbara Klampfer, Andrea Amacher and Werner Naef; The effects of different forms of co-ordination on coping with workload, Gudela Grote, Enikö Zala-Mezö and Patrick Grommes; Communication in nuclear power plants (NPP), Ryoko Fukuda and Oliver Strÿter; Linguistic factors, Manfred Krifka, Silka Martens and Florian Schwarz; Language processing, Rainer Dietrich, Patrick Grommes and Sascha Neuper; Task load and the microstructure of cognition, Werner Sommer, Annette Hohlfeld and Jörg Sangals. Part II: Specific Issues: Setting the stage: characteristics of organizations, teams and tasks influencing team processes, Gudela Grote, Robert L. Helmreich, Oliver Strÿter, Ruth Hÿusler, Enikö Zala-Mezö and J. Bryan Sexton; Structural features of language and language use, Manfred Krifka; Leadership and co-ordination, J. Bryan Sexton, Patrick Grommes, Enikö Zala-Mezö, Gudela Grote, Robert L. Helmreich and Ruth Hÿusler; Determinants of effective communication, Rainer Dietrich; Task load effects on language processing; experimental approaches, Annette Hohlfeld, Ryoko Fukuda, Sascha Neuper, Jörg Sangals, Werner Sommer and Oliver Strÿter, Appendices; Bibliography; Index.