Mixed- & Homogeneous-Culture Military Team Performance on a Simulated Mission: Effects of Age, Computer-Game Experience

Abstract : In order to investigate the performance of mixed- versus homogeneous-culture four-person military teams, the NATO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM-138) on Adaptability in Multinational Coalitions conducted a computer-based experiment. This paper examines the role of age, computer-game experience, and English proficiency as confounding variables in explaining the results. A key finding is that differences among national groups disappear when the effects of the confounds are removed, but the mixed-culture teams now have the best performance. Some reasons for these findings and the implications for military selection, training, and procedures are discussed.