Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science Vol. 11, No. 4, July–August 2010, 321–339 Effects of mood and stress on distributed team cognition Mark S. Pfaff a * and Michael D. McNeese b a School of Informatics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; b College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA (Received 6 August 2009; final version received 12 August 2009) Team cognition under stress has come under increasing scrutiny, most often in the wake of unfortunate and catastrophic accidents. The role of mood in team cognition, however, has attracted markedly less attention. An exploration of laboratory research on the effects of mood and stress on cognition at the individual level reveals convergent and overlapping findings suggesting that mood plays a more significant role in team cognition than is currently acknowledged. This article proposes a theoretical approach for distinguishing between the impacts of moods and stressors upon team cognition. It is demonstrated that team experiments conducted using this approach can reveal compelling patterns in this complex research space and identify both mediators and moderators in the process. This framework provides further insights into team cognition under stress that point towards design recommendations for systems and procedures used in technologically complex work environments. Keywords: distributed teams; computer-supported cooperative work; stress; mood; shared cognition 1. Introduction Scholarly interest in the effects of stress on human performance has risen considerably in the wake of multiple high-profile accidents. 1 Three widely cited examples are the partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant (Wickens 1992), the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, the worst oil spill in US history (Salas et al. 1996) and the accidental targeting and destruction of an Iranian airbus by the USS Vincennes (Collyer and Malecki 1998). Individual and team cognition have been tested at high levels of many kinds of stressors during the responses to such crises as the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The command and control operations across these diverse domains share a number of common features: interdependent collaborative work processes, technologically complex environments, ill-structured problems, dynamic and competing goals, and conflicts between organisational norms and personal expertise. Also common among these domains are considerable physical, cognitive and emotional challenges, including time-pressure, high uncertainty, hazardous conditions and high-risk outcomes (Orasanu and Connolly 1993). These characteristics are also familiar to those in commercial aviation, emergency medicine, fire-fighting and police work (Salas et al. 1996). *Corresponding author. Email: mpfaff@iupui.edu ISSN 1464–536X online ß 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14639221003729185 http://www.informaworld.com Downloaded By: [Pfaff, Mark S.] At: 18:21 24 June 2010