Towards an understanding of macrocognition in teams: developing and defining complex collaborative processes and products

One of the significant challenges for the burgeoning field of macrocognition is the development of more sophisticated models that are able to adequately explain and predict complex cognitive processes. This is even more critical when specifying research questions involving cognition unfolding across interacting individuals, that is, macrocognition in teams. In this article, we provide a foundation for developing a model of macrocognition focusing on collaborating problem-solving teams with a measurement framework for studying macrocognitive processes in this context. We first discuss an important set of key assumptions from team measurement theory that form a critical foundation for this model. We then describe the core definitions we suggest are foundational to the conceptualisation of macrocognition in teams. We conclude with a description of the key dimensions and subcomponents of our model in order to lay the foundation for a principled approach to measuring and understanding macrocognition in teams.