The Multi-Agent Team Trust Emergence Research Testbed (MATTER) allows researchers to assess emerging team and trust dynamics among human-agent teams (HATs), leading to practical and theoretical training and real-world implications for complex, interdependent HATs with similar task paradigms. 

Outcomes and Additional Information

• The testbed simulates scenarios that mirror real-world complexity and variability, offering critical insights into how humans collaborate with multiple autonomous agents under interdependent conditions. This allows exploration of the human perception of trust violations and repair attempts, providing richer insights into emotional, cognitive, and behavioral processes. In turn, this can understanding can inform the design of effective trust repair strategies.

• These insights are invaluable for training in domains like military ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), where mission success hinges on understanding team trust dynamics, coordination, behavior changes, and performance under stress. For instance, the testbed's ability to measure agent trust, team trust, and behavioral indicators allows researchers to identify trust breakdowns, moments of over-trust or distrust, and opportunities for improving human-agent collaboration. 

• The researchers are also examining how humans describe their own emotional and behavioral responses to trust violation and repair, the qualitative themes that emerge in trust dissolution, and the influence of personality traits on reactions.

• A study using the testbed investigated the relationship between subjective perception, coded as themes, and overall trust dissolution in the violating agent. The results indicate that:

  • • When participants experienced a trust violation holistically, multiple facets were affected, including emotions, cognitive appraisals of the situation, and behaviors. 

    • Expressions of trust loss increased with the deterioration of trust in agents that had a violation.

    • Emotional engagement interacted with situational factors in how trust breaks down and potentially repairs.

    • Emotional and behavioral changes affected trust differently depending on the repair condition, suggesting the context of the violation shapes trust recovery trajectories.

Publications related to this effort

• ​Robbins-Roth, V., Carmody, K., DeLoach, B., Carroll., M., Thayer, A., Wildman, J. (2025). Understanding human agent teaming: a mixed-methods examination of perceptions and interactions.​ 2025 Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Conference.

• Carroll., M., Carmody, K., Canady, K., Akib, M., Thayer, A., Wildman, J. (in progress). Beyond the Breach: Exploring Trust Violation and Recovery using a Simulated ISR Testbed. Advancements in Human Agent Teaming Research Infrastructure: Testbeds, Metrics, and Concepts, HFES.

• Addis, A., Akib, M., Nguyen, D., Thayer, A. L., Carmody, K., Wildman, J. L., & Carroll, M. (2024, April). The adjacency effect: Composition influences trust spillover in heterogeneous human-agent teams. In Gerkin, E. (Co-Chair) & Thayer, A.L. (Co-Chair) Configuring Tomorrow's Teams: New Directions in Team Composition Research [Symposium]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, United States. ​

• Wildman, J. L. (Panelist and Chair, 2024, July). Human-Agent Teams (HATs) of Tomorrow [Panel session]. Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research annual conference, Charlotte, NC, United States.  ​

• Carmody K., Sharma, V., Addis, A., Nguyen, D., Ficke, C., Thayer, A., Wildman, J., Carroll., M. (2024). Behave yourself! Behavioral indicators of trust dynamics in human agent teams. Proceedings of the 2024 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, United States.  ​

• Thayer, A. L., Addis, A., Canady, K., Akib, M., Nguyen, D., Carmody, K., Wildman, J. L., & Carroll, M. (2024, July). The bad apple spoils the barrel: Trust spillover in heterogeneous, multi-agent human-agent teams. In J. L. Wildman & A. L. Thayer (Co-Chairs), Advances in Human-Agent Teaming Research [Symposium]. Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research annual conference, Charlotte, NC, United States.  

• Addis, A., Carmody, K., Thayer, A., Sharma, V., Nguyen, D., Akib, M., Wildman, J., Carroll, M. (2024, April). Trust in heterogeneous human-agent teams: Applying multilevel and unobtrusive approaches. In Orvis, K. (Chair). (2024). Research Incubator: Unobtrusive Measure Development. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, United States. ​

• Wildman, J. L., Nguyen, D., Thayer, A. L., Robbins-Roth, V. T., Carroll, M., Carmody, K., Ficke, C., Akib, M., & Addis, A. (2024). Trust in human-agent teams: A multilevel perspective and future research agenda. Organizational Psychology Review, https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866241253278  ​

• C., Addis, A., Nguyen, D., Carmody, K., Thayer, A., Wildman, J.L, & Carroll, M. (2023, July). Measuring Trust in a Simulated Human Agent Team Task. The International Conference for Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics​

• Nguyen, D.M., Carmody, K., Wildman, J.L., & Carroll, M. (2023, April). Incorporating I/O into Human-Agent Teaming: The “T” in HAT Involves Theory. In Georganta, E. (Co-Chair), Human-Agent Teamwork: The Future of Collaboration at Work. The 38th Annual Convention of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Boston, MA, United States.​

• Thayer, A. L., Ficke, C. A., Carmody, K. A., Nguyen, D. M., Piasecki, I. Y., Addis, A. J., Akib, M. S., Wildman, J. L., & Carrol, M. B. (2023, April). Recommendations for Improving Trust Measurement in Work Teams. In Shuffler, M.L. (Co-Chair) & Rahner, Z.L. (Co-Chair), Developing unobtrusive measures of team constructs: Utilizing the RADSM process. The 38th Annual Convention of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Boston, MA, United States.​

• Nguyen, D. (2023). Charter for Smarter HATs: How Team Charters Dynamically Improve Trust and Emotions in Human-Agent Teams. [Dissertation]. Florida Institute of Technology.​

• Nguyen, D.M., Carmody, K., Wildman, J.L., & Carroll, M. (2022). Developing a Dynamic Testbed: Designing for Trust in Complex Human-Agent Teams. IEEE 3rd International Conference on Human-Machine Systems, Orlando, FL.

• Nguyen, D.M., Addis, A., Carmody, K., Ficke, C., Akib, M., Piasecki, I., Wildman, J.L, Carroll, M., & Thayer, A. (2022). A Multilevel approach to heterogeneous human-agent team trust dynamics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research, Hamburg, Germany.​

• Ficke, C., Carmody, K., Nguyen, D., Piasecki, I., Addis, A., Akib, M., Thayer, A. L., Wildman, J. L., & Carroll, M. (2022). Capturing trust dynamics in human-agent teams through unobtrusive measurement. Paper accepted to the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, & Education Conference (I/ITSEC), Orlando, FL. ​

• Ficke, C., Carmody, K., Nguyen, D.M., Piasecki, I., Addis, A., Akib, M., Thayer, A., Wildman, J.L., & Carroll, M. (2022). Improving Measurement of Trust Dynamics in Human-Agent Teams. The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL. ​