Gap the (Theory of) Mind: Sharing Beliefs About Teammates' Goals Boosts Collaboration Perception, Not Performance

TL;DR

Sharing inferred goals in human-agent teams influences perceived collaboration and strategic adaptation without necessarily improving task performance, highlighting complex trade-offs in goal communication.

Contribution

This study explores how sharing inferred goals affects collaboration perception and performance, revealing nuanced effects and cognitive load considerations.

Findings

Goal-sharing improves perceived collaboration and trust.

No significant performance improvement from goal-sharing.

Cognitive load remains unaffected by goal-sharing strategies.

Abstract

In human-agent teams, openly sharing goals is often assumed to enhance planning, collaboration, and effectiveness. However, direct communication of these goals is not always feasible, requiring teammates to infer their partner's intentions through actions. Building on this, we investigate whether an AI agent's ability to share its inferred understanding of a human teammate's goals can improve task performance and perceived collaboration. Through an experiment comparing three conditions-no recognition (NR), viable goals (VG), and viable goals on-demand (VGod) - we find that while goal-sharing information did not yield significant improvements in task performance or overall satisfaction scores, thematic analysis suggests that it supported strategic adaptations and subjective perceptions of collaboration. Cognitive load assessments revealed no additional burden across conditions, highlighting the challenge of balancing informativeness and simplicity in human-agent interactions. These findings highlight the nuanced trade-off of goal-sharing: while it fosters trust and enhances perceived collaboration, it can occasionally hinder objective performance gains.