ABSTRACT
Since the early 1990s, there has been an exciting proliferation of team cognition research across disciplinary boundaries. Team cognition is a broad term referring to the collective cognitions of a group (Tindale, Meisenhelder, Dykema-Engblade, & Hogg, 2001). In delineating the potential benefits of team cognition, Cannon-Bowers and Salas (2001) noted its role as an explanatory mechanism in distinguishing between effective and ineffective teams, its ability to predict team preparedness, and its diagnostic value in surfacing team problems and identifying points for intervention. Empirical research has gleaned support for the positive relationship between enhanced team process and/or performance and various forms of team cognition, including group learning (e.g., Edmondson, 1999), transactive memory (e.g., Liang, Moreland, & Argote, 1995), team mental models (e.g., Mathieu, Heffner, Goodwin, Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 2000), team situation awareness (e.g., Artman, 1999), and cognitive consensus (e.g., Mohammed & Ringseis, 2001). Indeed, a recent meta-analysis of 65 independent studies concluded that team cognition positively predicts team processes, motivational states, and performance (DeChurch & Mesmer-Magnus, 2010a).
