Using Global Implicit Measurement Strategies to Assess Situation Awareness during the Training of Laparoscopic Surgical Skills

Abstract

How well does a global implicit measure assess situation awareness in an elementary laparoscopic training scenario? Nine volunteers threaded as many orange, purple, and blue foam rings as possible onto a pegboard during 2-minute trials. They used a pair of 5mm laparoscopic surgical graspers in an endoscopy training simulator to perform the task. Ring sizes were identical for all colors in the first three trials but were of different inner diameters for the remaining six trials. This switch was never mentioned to participants. Workload measures were collected for each trial and included a subjective measure (NASA-TLX) and a secondary-task method (interval productions). Results indicated that interval productions, but not the NASA-TLX, showed evidence of a workload spike at the time that situation awareness was first manifested in performance. These preliminary data suggest that a global implicit measure can be used for evaluating SA in a relatively simple environment.