Knowing What You Know: The Role of Meta-Situation Awareness in Predicting Situation Awareness

Abstract

To help operators handle increasing task demands, automated systems are increasingly being used in modern work settings. However, a potential consequence of such systems is the out of the loop performance syndrome, which refers to the reduced ability of operators working with high levels of automation support to take over manual control in the event of an automation failure (e.g., Wiener & Curry, 1980). One of the main factors considered responsible for this is a loss of operator situation awareness (SA; Endsley & Kiris, 1995). In order to improve SA and consequently improve performance, it becomes important to better understand the process of SA and the underlying factors that predict SA (e.g., Durso & Sethumadhavan, 2008). The role of meta-SA in predicting SA when individuals control air traffic with automation support is investigated in this paper. Results have practical implications for the development of SA training programs.