This presentation focuses on the potential of naval wargaming for how military cadets collectively develop battlefield acumen. Through interaction analyses of video-recorded material from officer training in a digitally mediated wargame context, the study examines how interactions between cadets shape a distributed battlefield acumen, sometimes with the aid of military instructors. With a particular focus on a critical interaction phase – where contingencies are noticed, and future courses of action are introduced – the study investigates how cadets negotiate a shared situational understanding during complex naval scenarios.
Hulterström (2024) defines battlefield acumen as a crucial cognitive capacity for military success, encompassing situational awareness, problem-solving, and decision-making under uncertainty. While Hulterström primarily conceptualizes battlefield acumen as an individual capacity, he explicitly identifies team dynamics and collaboration in wargaming as a vital area for future research. This study responds to Hulterström's call by empirically investigating the collective dimension of battlefield acumen, aligning with established research on situational awareness in military contexts (Endsley, 2015; Stanton et al., 2017), which increasingly recognizes the distributed and social nature of awareness in complex operational environments.
The groups operate within a staff structure where cadets assume leadership roles, significantly impacting the negotiation and development of collective battlefield acumen. Drawing on authority-in-interaction (Stevanovic & Peräkylä, 2012), preliminary analyses explore how parts of this acumen emerge sequentially through epistemic and deontic negotiations between participants and focus on how cadets assert, challenge, and acknowledge each other's knowledge claims (epistemic negotiations) and decision rights (deontic negotiations) during gameplay. This approach aligns with previous research on how authority relations shape joint decision-making processes (Clifton et al., 2020; Bennerstedt & Svärdemo Åberg, 2024).
By "opening the black box" of moment-by-moment interaction, the study illustrates how the group's collective battlefield acumen is not the sum of individual understandings but rather a dynamic, socially negotiated practice that emerges in interaction. This work lays the foundation for future research that could combine interaction analysis with pre- and post-testing methodologies, potentially creating a more comprehensive understanding of how wargaming environments facilitate the development of both individual and collective battlefield acumen.
References
Bennerstedt, U., & Svärdemo Åberg, E. (2024). Educational leadership in collegial decision-making? How course leaders and teachers participate and influence decisions in planning meetings. Qualitative Studies, 9(3), 8-41.
Clifton, J., Larsson, M., & Schnurr, S. (2020). Leadership in interaction. An introduction to the Special Issue. Leadership, 16(5), 511-521.
Endsley, M. R. (2015). Situation awareness misconceptions and misunderstandings. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 9(1), 4-32.
Hulterström, P. (2024). From Play to Power: A Philosophical Inquiry into How Educational Wargaming Can Help Cultivate Battlefield Acumen. Åbo Akademi University Press.
Stanton, N. A., Salmon, P. M., Walker, G. H., Salas, E., & Hancock, P. A. (2017). State-of-science: Situation awareness in individuals, teams and systems. Ergonomics, 60(4), 449-466.
Stevanovic, M., & Peräkylä, A. (2012). Deontic Authority in Interaction: The Right to Announce, Propose, and Decide. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 45(3), 297-321.
2025.