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Journalism of Courage
A new research has found individuals,who work together as a team,display better problem-solving skills than those who face their fatigue alone.
Teams appear to be more highly motivated to perform well,and team members can compare solutions to reach the best decision when they are fatigued. This appears to allow teams to avoid the inflexible thinking experienced by fatigued individuals, said Daniel Frings,PhD,a senior lecturer in social psychology at London South Bank University.
The study examined the problem-solving skills of 171 army officer cadets during a weekend training exercise.
The results showed that individual soldiers who were fatigued performed significantly worse on the tests than alert soldiers. However,teams of cadets performed just as well when they were tired as when they were alert.
In situations where fatigue is a factor,decisions should be made by teams rather than individuals when possible,the study concluded.
The study was published online this week in the American Psychological Associations Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
