Navigating Trust: The Interplay of Trust in Automation and Team Communication in an Extended Simulated Military Mission

Trust in automation and team communication are crucial factors in human-agent teaming. While research has examined how trust in automation and team dynamics impact performance separately, less is known about how they combine to influence team dynamics. This study investigated how team speech dynamics are related to trust in automation, team perceptions, and workload in the context of a longitudinal multi-participant computer simulated military mission using active-duty military personnel. Results showed that participants with lower trust in automation spoke more than their teammates with higher trust in automation, even after controlling for perceptions of team trust, cooperation, workload, role on the team, and team performance. A common finding in the team literature is that more team communication and more trust in automation are, separately, better for team performance. Thus, this research is an initial step toward demonstrating how automation alters the team dynamics typically considered essential to their success.