This paper investigates the relationship between interaction behaviors and the cognitive characteristics of participating individuals in engineering design teams engaged in concept generation. Individual characteristics were measured using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation inventory (KAI), which assesses an individual’s cognitive preference for structure in seeking and responding to change. Team interactions were measured using the Interaction Dynamics Notation (IDN), which allows interaction behaviors to be quantitatively analyzed. A correlation analysis revealed statistically significant correlations between individual characteristics and specific interaction behaviors and ideation utterances. An interaction sequence analysis of the team data also revealed specific interaction sequences associated with greater probabilities of idea occurrence within the team. These findings serve as a first step towards building a cognitive-behavioral model of engineering design team performance.
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Exploring the dynamic interactions and cognitive characteristics of NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) teams
In this pilot study, we used the Interaction Dynamics Notation (IDN), originally designed for use with engineering design teams, to explore the dynamic interactions of five NSF I-Corps™ teams engaged in a simple design activity. Our aim was to relate these interaction data to selected cognitive characteristics of the team members, as well as team design outcomes and individual perceptions related to the experience. The individual cognitive characteristics we assessed focused on cognitive style, as measured by the Kirton Adaption-Innovation inventory (KAI), while team outcomes included the novelty, usefulness, and feasibility of each team’s design solutions, as well as their success within and beyond the NSF I-Corps™ program. Our findings show that the Interaction Dynamics Notation (IDN) can be readily extended to the study of entrepreneurial teams, with important insights gained from the combined study of interaction dynamics, individual cognitive characteristics as measured by KAI, and team outcomes. The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility and value of this approach for investigating the dynamic interactions of NSF I-Corps™ teams, as well as product-focused design teams in general.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1635437
- PAR ID:
- 10063714
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proc. of the ASEE 2018 Annual Conference & Exposition
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This paper investigates the relationship between interaction behaviors and the cognitive characteristics of participating individuals in engineering design teams engaged in concept generation. Individual characteristics were measured using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation inventory (KAI), which assesses an individual’s cognitive preference for structure in seeking and responding to change. Team interactions were measured using the Interaction Dynamics Notation (IDN), which allows interaction behaviors to be quantitatively analyzed. A correlation analysis revealed statistically significant correlations between individual characteristics and specific interaction behaviors and ideation utterances. An interaction sequence analysis of the team data also revealed specific interaction sequences associated with greater probabilities of idea occurrence within the team. These findings serve as a first step towards building a cognitive-behavioral model of engineering design team performance.more » « less
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