Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:10:32.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE EMERGENCE AND IMPACT OF SYNCHRONY IN DESIGN TEAMS: A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Marija Majda Perišić ,
Mario Štorga  and
John Gero
Marija Majda Perišić*
Affiliation:
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Croatia;
Mario Štorga
Affiliation:
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Croatia; Luleå University of Technology, Sweden;
John Gero
Affiliation:
UNC Charlotte, USA
*
Perisic, Marija Majda, University of Zagreb, FSB, Croatia, mperisic@fsb.hr

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Studies revealed that, while collaborating, humans tend to synchronise on multiple levels (e.g., neurocognitive or physiological). Inter-brain synchrony has been linked to improved problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. Nevertheless, studies on synchrony in design teams started to emerge only recently. This study contributes to this stream of research by utilising a computational model of a design team to explore the relationships between team cohesion, synchrony, and team performance. The experiments revealed a positive link between team cohesion level and the emergence of (cognitive) synchrony. Furthermore, cohesive teams were found to be more efficient, converging quicker and producing solutions at a higher rate. In addition, the diversity of the solutions generated by highly cohesive teams tends to increase over time. Teams in medium- and low-cohesive settings initially generate highly diverse solutions, but such diversity decreases as the simulation progresses. Finally, highly-cohesive teams were found to be prone to premature convergence.

Keywords

TeamworkSimulationDesign cognitionSynchrony
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 3385 - 3394
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

Anderson, J.R. (1983), “A spreading activation theory of memory”, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 261–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avnet, M.S. (2009), Socio-Cognitive Analysis of Engineering Systems Design: Shared Knowledge, Process, and Product, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Badke-Schaub, P., Neumann, A., Lauche, K. and Mohammed, S. (2007), “Mental models in design teams: a valid approach to performance in design collaboration?”, CoDesign, Taylor & Francis, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baer, M., Oldham, G.R., Jacobsohn, G.C. and Hollingshead, A.B. (2008), “The personality composition of teams and creativity: The moderating role of team creative confidence”, The Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 255–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becks, L. and Arndt, H. (2013), “Different types of synchrony in chaotic and cyclic communities”, Nature Communications, Vol. 4 No. 1, p. 1359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Behrens, F., Snijdewint, J.A., Moulder, R.G., Prochazkova, E., Sjak-Shie, E.E., Boker, S.M. and Kret, M.E. (2020), “Physiological synchrony is associated with cooperative success in real-life interactions”, Scientific Reports, Vol. 10 No. 1, p. 19609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bernieri, F.J. and Rosenthal, R. (1991), “Interpersonal coordination: Behavior matching and interactional synchrony”, in Feldman, R.S. and Rimé, B. (Eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior, Cambridge University Press, pp. 401–432.Google Scholar
Campbell, C.M., Izquierdo, E.J. and Goldstone, R.L. (2022), “Partial copying and the role of diversity in social learning performance”, Collective Intelligence, Vol. 1 No. 1, p. 263391372210818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casakin, H., Ball, L.J., Christensen, B.T. and Badke-Schaub, P. (2015), “How do analogizing and mental simulation influence team dynamics in innovative product design?”, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chetouani, M., Delaherche, E., Dumas, G. and Cohen, D. (2017), “Interpersonal synchrony: From social perception to social interaction”, Social Signal Processing, Cambridge University Press, pp. 202–212.Google Scholar
Cui, X., Bryant, D.M. and Reiss, A.L. (2012), “NIRS-based hyperscanning reveals increased interpersonal coherence in superior frontal cortex during cooperation”, NeuroImage, Vol. 59 No. 3, pp. 2430–2437.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delaherche, E., Chetouani, M., Mahdhaoui, A., Saint-Georges, C., Viaux, S. and Cohen, D. (2012), “Interpersonal synchrony: A survey of evaluation methods across disciplines”, IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 349–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dikker, S., Wan, L., Davidesco, I., Kaggen, L., Oostrik, M., McClintock, J., Rowland, J., et al. (2017), “Brain-to-brain synchrony tracks real-world dynamic group interactions in the classroom”, Current Biology, Vol. 27 No. 9, pp. 1375–1380.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, A., Kleinsmann, M.S. and Deken, F. (2013), “Investigating design cognition in the construction and enactment of team mental models”, Design Studies, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, A.P.J., Hollenbeck, J.R., Ilgen, D.R., Porter, C., West, B. and Moon, H. (2001), “Capacity, collaboration and commonality: a framework for understanding team learning”, Proceedings of the 6th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium, Annapolis, available at:https://doi.org/10.1.1.297.1942.Google Scholar
Fernandes, R., Arroyo, D. and Yamanaka, T. (2018), “Emotional synchrony effects on team design outcomes”, TGSW 2018 Art & Design Session Proceedings, pp. 77–80.Google Scholar
Fu, K.K., Sylcott, B. and Das, K. (2019), “Using fMRI to deepen our understanding of design fixation”, Design Science, Vol. 5, p. e22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gero, J.S. (1990), “Design prototypes: A knowledge representation schema for design”, AI Magazine, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 26–36.Google Scholar
Gordon, I., Gilboa, A., Cohen, S., Milstein, N., Haimovich, N., Pinhasi, S. and Siegman, S. (2020), “Physiological and behavioral synchrony predict group cohesion and performance”, Scientific Reports, Vol. 10 No. 1, p. 8484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guastello, S.J., Bednarczyk, C., Hagan, R., Johnson, C., Marscisek, L., McGuigan, L. and Peressini, A.F. (2022), “Team situation awareness, cohesion, and autonomic synchrony”, Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, p. 001872082211183.Google Scholar
Guastello, S.J., Palmer, C., Marra, D.E. and Peressini, A.F. (2020), “The effect of cooperation and competition dynamics on autonomic synchrony in teams”, Selbstorganisation – Ein Paradigma Für Die Humanwissenschaften, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, pp. 317–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, L., Duffy, A.H.B., Gilbert, S.J., Lyall, L., Campbell, G., Coyle, D. and Grealy, M.A. (2019), “The neural correlates of ideation in product design engineering practitioners”, Design Science, Vol. 5, p. e29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holroyd, C.B. (2022), “Interbrain synchrony: on wavy ground”, Trends in Neurosciences, Vol. 45 No. 5, pp. 346–357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hu, Y., Pan, Y., Shi, X., Cai, Q., Li, X. and Cheng, X. (2018), “Inter-brain synchrony and cooperation context in interactive decision making”, Biological Psychology, Vol. 133, pp. 54–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, S., Brooks-Shesler, L., King, E.B. and Zaccaro, S. (2009), “Thinking inside the box: How conformity promotes creativity and innovation”, pp. 229–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leroy, S., Shipp, A.J., Blount, S. and Licht, J.-G. (2015), “Synchrony preference: Why some people go with the flow, and some don't”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 68 No. 4, pp. 759–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liang, Z., Li, S., Zhou, S., Chen, S., Li, Y., Chen, Y., Zhao, Q., et al. (2022), “Increased or decreased? Interpersonal neural synchronization in group creation”, NeuroImage, Vol. 260, p. 119448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, T., Duan, L., Dai, R., Pelowski, M. and Zhu, C. (2021), “Team-work, team-brain: Exploring synchrony and team interdependence in a nine-person drumming task via multiparticipant hyperscanning and inter-brain network topology with fNIRS”, NeuroImage, Vol. 237, p. 118147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayseless, N., Hawthorne, G. and Reiss, A. (2020), “The neuroscience of team collaboration during a design thinking event in naturalistic settings”, Design Thinking Research . Understanding Innovation., Springer, Cham, pp. 143–154.Google Scholar
Mayseless, N., Hawthorne, G. and Reiss, A.L. (2019), “Real-life creative problem solving in teams: fNIRS based hyperscanning study”, NeuroImage, Vol. 203, p. 116161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naidu, Mogan, R. (2018), Aligning Bodies and Minds: New Insights about Synchrony's Effects on Creative Thinking, Cohesion and Positive Affect, Victoria University of Wellington.Google Scholar
Neumann, A., Badke-Schaub, P. and Lauche, K. (2008), “Team cohesion and process aspects of teamwork in design”, Proceedings DESIGN 2008, the 10th International Design Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia, pp. 1105–1112.Google Scholar
Palumbo, R. V., Marraccini, M.E., Weyandt, L.L., Wilder-Smith, O., McGee, H.A., Liu, S. and Goodwin, M.S. (2017), “Interpersonal autonomic physiology: A systematic review of the literature”, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 99–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perišić, M.M. (2020), Multi-Agent System for Simulation of Team Behaviour in Product Development, Dissertation, University of Zagreb.Google Scholar
Perisic, M.M., Martinec, T., Storga, M. and Gero, J.S. (2019), “A Computational Study of the Effect of Experience on Problem/Solution Space Exploration in Teams”, Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 11–20.Google Scholar
Perisic, M.M., Štorga, M. and Gero, J.S. (2021), “Computational study on design space expansion during teamwork”, Proceedings of the Design Society, Vol. 1, pp. 691–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perišić, M.M., Štorga, M. and Gero, J.S. (2019), “Exploring the Effect of Experience on Team Behavior: A Computational Approach”, Design Computing and Cognition ’18, Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 595–612.Google Scholar
Ravignani, A. (2017), “Agree on definitions of synchrony”, Nature, Vol. 545 No. 7653, pp. 158–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reinero, D.A., Dikker, S. and Van Bavel, J.J. (2021), “Inter-brain synchrony in teams predicts collective performance”, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 16 No. 1–2, pp. 43–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodríguez-Sánchez, A.M., Devloo, T., Rico, R., Salanova, M. and Anseel, F. (2017), “What makes creative teams tick? Cohesion, engagement, and performance across creativity tasks: A three-wave study”, Group & Organization Management, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 521–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schirmer, A., Fairhurst, M. and Hoehl, S. (2021), “Being ‘in sync’—is interactional synchrony the key to understanding the social brain?”, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Vol. 16 No. 1–2, pp. 1–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shahal, S., Wurzberg, A., Sibony, I., Duadi, H., Shniderman, E., Weymouth, D., Davidson, N., et al. (2020), “Synchronization of complex human networks”, Nature Communications, Vol. 11 No. 1, p. 3854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sosa, R. and Gero, J.S. (2004), “A computational framework for the study of creativity and innovation in design: Effects of social ties”, Design Computing and Cognition ’04, Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 499–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stempfle, J. and Badke-Schaub, P. (2002), “Thinking in design teams - an analysis of team communication”, Design Studies, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 473–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strogatz, S.H. (2003), Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order, Hyperion, New York, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Strogatz, S.H., Abrams, D.M., McRobie, A., Eckhardt, B. and Ott, E. (2005), “Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge”, Nature, Vol. 438 No. 7064, pp. 43–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomson, M., Murphy, K. and Lukeman, R. (2018), “Groups clapping in unison undergo size-dependent error-induced frequency increase”, Scientific Reports, Vol. 8 No. 1, p. 808.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verdiere, K.J., Albert, M., Dehais, F. and Roy, R.N. (2020), “Physiological synchrony revealed by delayed coincidence count: Application to a cooperative complex environment”, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 395–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, X., Zhang, Y., He, Y., Lu, K. and Hao, N. (2022), “Dynamic inter-brain networks correspond with specific communication behaviors: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning during creative and non-creative communication”, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 16, available at:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.907332.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wiltermuth, S.S. and Heath, C. (2009), “Synchrony and cooperation”, Psychological Science, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Won, A.S., Bailenson, J.N., Stathatos, S.C. and Dai, W. (2014), “Automatically detected nonverbal behavior predicts creativity in collaborating dyads”, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 389–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, M., Jia, H., Zheng, M. and Liu, T. (2021), “Group decision-making behavior in social dilemmas: Inter-brain synchrony and the predictive role of personality traits”, Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 168, p. 110315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar