Extracting team mental models through textual analysis

to Sara Kiesler and Doug Wholey for their involvement in the larger project and for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank the reviewers for their extensive and very helpful comments. The comments of one reviewer in particular were incredibly valuable not just for this paper, but for future work in this area. Extracting Team Mental Models Through Textual Analysis An approach, called map analysis, for extracting, analyzing and combining representations of individual’s mental models as cognitive maps is presented. This textual analysis technique allows the researcher to extract cognitive maps, locate similarities across maps, and combine maps to generate a team map. Using map analysis the researcher can address questions about the nature of team mental models and the extent to which sharing is necessary for effective teamwork. This technique is illustrated using data drawn from a study of software engineering teams. The impact of critical coding choices on the resultant findings is examined. It is shown that various coding choices have systematic effects on the