Shared Mental Models (SMM)
The shared mental model (SMM) construct represents team members’ overlapping mental representation of knowledge, often associated with tasks, equipment, working relationships, and situations (Bossche et al., 2011).
- Overlapping knowledge of:
- Tasks
- Resources
- Relationships
- Context
Johnson and Lee (2008) expanded on this definition to include shared knowledge, skill, attitudes, objectives, processes, teamwork components, communication, coordination, roles, and interactions.
- Shared knowledge
- Skill
- Attitudes
- Objectives
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Coordination
- Roles
- Interaction
Bossche et al. (2011) operationalized SMM into two categories: concepts and statements.
- Concepts
- Statements
From their research, Bossche et al. (2011) measured SMM-concepts as the number of concepts identified by team members — for example, accepting two out of three similar concepts from a team of three. In addition to SMM-concepts, SMM-statements included two out of three statements from team members that reflected the same meaning.
Alternatively, Johnson and Lee (2008) operationalized SMM into five different measures based on team member perceptions of sharedness:
- Team-related knowledge (TK)
- Team-related skill (TS)
- Team-related attitude (TA)
- Team-related dynamicity (TD)
- Team-related environment (TE)
See Also
References
Bossche, P. V., Gijselaers, W., Segers, M., Woltjer, P., & Kirschner, P. (2011). Team learning: Building shared mental models. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 39, 283–301. https://doi.org/10.1077/s11251-010-9128-3
Johnson, T. E., & Lee, Y. (2008). The relationship between shared mental models and task performance in an online team-based learning environment. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 21(3), 97–112.