Recommendations for improving communication while performing tasks under noisy, reverberant, and delayed communication transmission conditions.

This study, which is part of a larger study, was designed to generate recommendations for improving remote collaborative communication. Ninety (45 men and 45 women) participants were divided into 30 teams with 3 members in each team. Each team built different LEGO models under three communication transmission delay conditions in the following order: No delay, 750 ms delay and 5000 ms delay. One individual served as the LEGO builder, who did not have access to the instructions. The remaining two team members provided instructions for building the models. Participants were in separate rooms and communicated with each other via earphones. Background white noise (50 dB SPL) was introduced in the ear canals and reverberation was applied to the transmitted communication. After the three delay conditions, participants responded to questions. Their responses were coded into different categories for conceptual analyses. Several recommendations emerged including providing accurate, concise and clear instructions, ensuring ongoing alignment of the spatial orientation of the LEGO model across team members, standardizing/aligning phrases or terms across the team members, and increasing team and task familiarity. Additional recommendations will be discussed during the presentation with examples. [Acknowledgement: Graduate students Sydney Osbarn and Melissa Reyes assisted in data collection.]