Crew Resource Management and Shared Mental Models: A Proposal

Crew Resource Management (CRM) training focuses on situation awareness, communication skills, teamwork, task allocation, and decision making. More recently, an interest in cognitive skill is beginning to appear in relation to CRM. One aspect of cognitive skill that has been examined in a variety of team domains is the notion of overlapping or "shared" mental models among teammates. While a growing amount of evidence on the relationship between shared mental models and team performance exists, only limited research has focused on the role that shared mental models have-in crew resource management. The purpose of this paper is to provide CRM researchers and practitioners an understanding of the shared mental model construct and the role of shared mental models in team performance, as well as to encourage additional research on this topic within the aviation domain.