Situation Awareness in Teams

Abstract

Situation awareness (SA) has been studied extensively in individuals and teams over the past three decades. SA, an understanding of what is happening in the current situation, has been shown to be critical for performance in a wide variety of domains, including aviation, air traffic control, military operations, emergency management, healthcare, and power grid operations (Endsley, 2015b; Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2008; Wickens, 2008). Both overall team SA and the development of shared SA on relevant information have been found to be crucial for effective team performance in many of these domains. A model of team SA is discussed that highlights the importance of team SA requirements, team SA devices, team SA mechanisms, and team SA processes for achieving SA in teams. Common challenges for team SA and shared SA in team environments are presented, and the effectiveness of different measurement approaches for assessing both team SA and shared SA are reviewed for supporting important research in this area.