Measuring Situation Awareness in Control Room Teams

Abstract

The importance of monitoring activities in control rooms continues to increase. Teams of operators are required to monitor a system for any abnormal system behavior, and must be able to exert manual control over the system in case of automation failure. Being ready to act requires operators to be aware of the system status at all times. However, developing and maintaining high situation awareness in a highly complex and dynamic environment can be challenging. Hence, the absence of situation awareness has often been attributed as the cause of human error in the past. A better understanding of situation awareness using different methods for quantification are required in order to reduce error and enhance the training of control room teams. The following study concentrates on evaluating situation awareness in a simulated control center task. Twenty-one three-person teams (N = 63 participants) were tested. Performance, gaze, and communication data were integrated as individual measures of situation awareness. A relationship between the three measures was identified. Post-hoc analyses revealed differences between high and low performers with regards to their situation awareness. The development of situation awareness over time was also taken into consideration. Results reveal that when investigating situation awareness in control room teams, the use of multiple measures is a promising approach.