O050 Fatigue in teams – does team member proximity matter?

Introduction The impact of 24/7 operations on cognitive performance at the individual level has been well established. However, very few studies have explored the effect of fatigued individuals on team performance outcomes. Furthermore, no studies have examined the impact of team member proximity under fatigued conditions. Methods Participants in this study underwent two nights of restricted sleep (six hours in bed) before commencing a 31.5-hour wakefulness protocol, during which they completed one of three team tasks every two hours: Captain Sonar (co-located, cooperative), Monster Game (co-located, collaborative), and COHESION (distributed, collaborative). Before and after each task, participants completed the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale and Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Results Results showed, increased time awake led to increased sleepiness (p<.001), slower response times (p<.001), and more frequent lapses (p<.001). Post hoc tests indicated that sleepiness and response times increased significantly following the distributed task (COHESION, p<.001). In contrast, participants were less sleepy and had faster response times after completing the co-located, cooperative task (Captain Sonar, p=.012), compared to immediately prior, suggesting an alerting effect of this co-located task. Furthermore, co-located teams maintained their performance within the team tasks, unlike distributed teams, whose performance declined with increasing time awake. Discussion This study highlights the benefits of face-to-face, co-located teams. Additionally, these findings suggest that working in teams may serve as a fatigue risk management countermeasure. These findings also have implications for teams in disaggregated and distributed operational environments, particularly in 24/7 workplaces. Novel countermeasures are needed to optimize human capability in non-co-located settings.