High Level Of Situation Awareness Research Articles

Could Spatial Awareness Affect Situation Awareness: A Conceptual Examination.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between situation awareness (SA) and the physical environment in patient rooms through building a conceptual model. Nurses work in very complicated and dynamic environments where having high levels of SA could be critical for their performance. Studies have also shown that nurses' awareness of the physical environment and patient room is a part of their awareness of dynamic situations in which nurses' spatial awareness may play a role in SA. Despite literature outlining the importance of SA, there is a lack of studies exploring the relationship between the two. A literature review was conducted for the study from nursing and psychology databases. Thirty-three articles, books, and dissertations from a scoping review were included for in-depth review. An in-depth review of the harvested literature indicated that there is in fact a relationship between these two phenomena. Founded on Endsley's model of SA, the literature review in this study offers a conceptual model that articulates a plausible causal pathway between the physical environment and SA. There are a lot of studies focusing on SA and various aspects of it related to nursing, but almost none mention the physical environment and its impact on SA. The current inquiry suggests that spatial awareness plays a prominent role in SA.

Characterization of soft skills in the Brazilian Judiciary: profile of justice servers

The Judiciary acts strictly according to norms and principles in compliance with a set of rules and principles aimed at ensuring the protection of fundamental rights and the maintenance of the Rule of Law. Thus, the demand for specific technical knowledge of its professionals, the Hard Skills, predominates. On the other hand, there is evidence that other competencies interfere with performance, associated with intangible personal and behavioral attributes, the Soft Skills, such as critical thinking and leadership. The present study aimed to verify the profile of Soft Skills in Justice servers based on fourteen variables that make up the conceptual model chosen. To reach the research goal, 97 servers participated in the investigation and the information collected was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The results generated an understanding of the Soft Skills profile in the researched organization. The study showed that the respondents consider themselves to be reliable professionals, organized, with appropriate attitudes, and zealous in complying with the institution's rules. However, they declared that they end up doing activities that interfere with their work, because they have difficulty saying "no", besides declaring problems in controlling the important parts of their life. It was concluded in this work that the Justice servers consulted have a high level of Situational Awareness and Responsibility, at the same time that they recognized difficulties with Time Management and Management and stress resistance.

Effects of cybersecurity knowledge and situation awareness during cyberattacks on autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles offer many potential benefits; however, this expansion of cyber-physical systems also introduces a new potential vulnerability through cybersecurity threats. It is therefore important to understand the role vehicle occupants can play in preventing and responding to cyberattacks. The objective of this study is to (1) evaluate drivers’ responses to unexpected cyberattacks, and (2) evaluate how cybersecurity knowledge affects situation awareness (SA) during cyberattacks on automated driving. A driving simulator study with 20 participants was conducted to measure drivers’ performance during unexpected cyberattacks on a SAE Level 2 partially-autonomous vehicle and the infrastructure in the driving environment. Each participant experienced four driving scenarios, each scenario with a different cyberattack. Two cyberattacks were directly on the vehicle and two were on the infrastructure. Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) was used to measure participants’ situation awareness during the drives and at the time of the cyberattacks. Participant takeover responses to the cyberattacks were collected through the driving simulator. Participants also completed a cybersecurity knowledge survey at the end of the experiment to assess their previous overall cyber awareness and experience with autonomous vehicles. Most of the participants recognized the cyberattacks, however only about half of the participants chose to takeover control of the vehicle during the attacks, and in one attack no one overtook the automation. Results from ANOVAs showed significantly higher SA for participants with greater familiarity with cybersecurity terms and vehicle-to-everything technology. In addition, SA scores were significantly higher for participants who believed security systems (i.e., firewall, encryption) are important and for those who felt protected against cybercrimes. The present results suggest that increased cybersecurity knowledge can cause a high level of situation awareness during automated driving, which can help drivers to control unexpected driving situations due to cybersecurity attacks.

Beyond the Surgical Safety Checklist: Using Intraoperative Handoff to Facilitate Team Situation Awareness in the OR.

The surgical safety checklist (SSC) has been credited with improving team situation awareness (SA) in the operating room. Although the SSC may support team SA at the outset of the operative case, intraoperative handoff provides an opportunity for either SA breakdown or, more preferably, SA reinforcement. High-functioning surgical teams demonstrate a high level of continued SA, whereas teams deficient in SA are more likely to be affected by surgical errors and adverse events. To date, no interprofessional intraoperative tools exist to support team SA beyond the SSC. This study was divided into 2 phases. The first used qualitative methods to (1) characterize intraoperative handoff processes across surgery, nursing, anesthesia, and perfusion, and (2) identify cultural factors that shaped handoff practices. Data for phase one were collected over 38 observation days and 41 brief interviews. Phase 2, informed by phase 1, used a modified Delphi process to create a tool for use during intraoperative handoff. Data were analyzed iteratively. Handoff practices were not standardized and rarely involved the entire team. In addition we uncovered cultural factors-specifically assumptions held by participants-that hindered team communication during handoff. Assumptions included: (1) team members are interchangeable, (2) trained individuals are able to determine when it is appropriate to handoff without consulting the OR team. Despite claims of improved teamwork resulting from the SSC, many participants held a fragmented view of the OR team, resulting in communication challenges during handoff. Findings from both phases of our study informed the development of multidisciplinary intraoperative handoff tools to facilitate shared team situation awareness and a shared mental model. Intraoperative handoff occurs frequently, and offers the opportunity for either renewed or fractured team SA beyond the SSC.

The Influence of Presentation Frames of Visualization Information for Safety on Situational Awareness under a Three-Level User-Interface Design.

To explore the influence of the construction and presentation frames of visualization information for safety (VIS) on people's situation awareness (SA), we designed a three-level user interface (UI) of VIS based on the three-stage SA theory, including perception (SA1), comprehension (SA2), and projection (SA3). Then, 166 subjects were recruited and divided into three groups to participate in the experiment, in which SA was measured by the situation-present-assessment method (SPAM) and situation-awareness-rating technique (SART), and eye-movement data were recorded. The results show that the level-3 UI design could effectively improve the subjects' SA levels. Although the increase in VIS displayed caused by the higher UI level led to a decrease in the perception-stage score of SA, the level-3 UI fully considered the three stages of human information processing, and helped improve the SA of the subjects; the overall SA score measured using the SART method was not significant, but the result was consistent with the SPAM. There was a framing effect on the presentation of VIS, and subjects perceived different degrees of risk under different presentation frames; that is, less risk under the positive frame, more risk under the negative frame, and a higher level of SA under the positive frame compared with the negative frame. To some extent, the nearest-neighbor-index (NNI) algorithm could be utilized to quantify subjects' eye-tracking fixation mode. While the frames were guided by the high-level interface and the positive presentation frame, the distribution of the subjects' gaze points was more discrete; they could grasp the relevant information more comprehensively and had a relatively high level of SA. To some extent, this study can provide a reference for the design and optimization of the VIS presentation interface.

Opportunities and Directions for the Evolution of Command and Control Systems in the Context of Multi-domain Operations

The military conflicts of recent times have highlighted the need for modern military operations to focus on multi-domain operations, which requires a transformation of the command and control system, by creating mobile and flexible headquarters that can provide relevant information at any time, even during redeployments and redeployments. Cloud computing can be used to integrate data collection tools, ensuring fast and accurate analysis of large amounts of incoming data. A private 5G network can provide a secure, high-speed and reliable communication environment for cloud-based command and control systems. This network will enable real-time information transfer, facilitate rapid decision-making processes and enable the deployment of autonomous vehicles and drones. The authors have also explored capabilities that support the deployment of autonomous vehicles and drones, enabling commanders to conduct intelligence and surveillance more effectively. By leveraging technology and advanced communications systems, commanders can lead their teams in a dynamic environment while providing a high level of situational awareness. This integration of information and mobility allows commanders to react quickly and decisively, ultimately increasing their effectiveness on the battlefield.

Integration of Machine Learning-Based Attack Detectors into Defensive Exercises of a 5G Cyber Range

Cybercrime has become more pervasive and sophisticated over the years. Cyber ranges have emerged as a solution to keep pace with the rapid evolution of cybersecurity threats and attacks. Cyber ranges have evolved to virtual environments that allow various IT and network infrastructures to be simulated to conduct cybersecurity exercises in a secure, flexible, and scalable manner. With these training environments, organizations or individuals can increase their preparedness and proficiency in cybersecurity-related tasks while helping to maintain a high level of situational awareness. SPIDER is an innovative cyber range as a Service (CRaaS) platform for 5G networks that offer infrastructure emulation, training, and decision support for cybersecurity-related tasks. In this paper, we present the integration in SPIDER of defensive exercises based on the utilization of machine learning models as key components of attack detectors. Two recently appeared network attacks, cryptomining using botnets of compromised devices and vulnerability exploit of the DoH protocol (DNS over HTTP), are used as the support use cases for the proposed exercises in order to exemplify the way in which other attacks and the corresponding ML-based detectors can be integrated into SPIDER defensive exercises. The two attacks were emulated, respectively, to appear in the control and data planes of a 5G network. The exercises use realistic 5G network traffic generated in a new environment based on a fully virtualized 5G network. We provide an in-depth explanation of the integration and deployment of these exercises and a complete walkthrough of them and their results. The machine learning models that act as attack detectors are deployed using container technology and standard interfaces in a new component called Smart Traffic Analyzer (STA). We propose a solution to integrate STAs in a standardized way in SPIDER for the use of trainees in exercises. Finally, this work proposes the application of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to obtain on-demand synthetic flow-based network traffic that can be seamlessly integrated into SPIDER exercises to be used instead of real traffic and attacks.

Modeling eye movement in dynamic interactive tasks for maximizing situation awareness based on Markov decision process

For complex dynamic interactive tasks (such as aviating), operators need to continuously extract information from areas of interest (AOIs) through eye movement to maintain high level of situation awareness (SA), as failures of SA may cause task performance degradation, even system accident. Most of the current eye movement models focus on either static tasks (such as image viewing) or simple dynamic tasks (such as video watching), without considering SA. In this study, an eye movement model with the goal of maximizing SA is proposed based on Markov decision process (MDP), which is designed to describe the dynamic eye movement of experienced operators in dynamic interactive tasks. Two top-down factors, expectancy and value, are introduced into this model to represent the update probability and the importance of information in AOIs, respectively. In particular, the model regards sequence of eye fixations to different AOIs as sequential decisions to maximize the SA-related reward (value) in the context of uncertain information update (expectancy). Further, this model was validated with a flight simulation experiment. Results show that the predicted probabilities of fixation on and shift between AOIs are highly correlated (R = 0.928 and R = 0.951, respectively) with those of the experiment data.

Remote Training of Neurointerventions by Audiovisual Streaming

BackgroundRemote access of trainees to training centers via video streaming (tele-observership, e‑fellowship) emerges as an alternative to acquire knowledge in endovascular interventions. Situational awareness is a summary term that is also used in surgical procedures for perceiving and understanding the situation and projecting what will happen next. A high situational awareness would serve as prerequisite for meaningful learning success during tele-observerships. We hypothesized that live perception of the angiographical procedures using streaming technology is feasible and sufficient to gain useful situational awareness of the procedure.MethodsDuring a European tele-observership organized by the European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT) and its trainee association (EYMINT), a total of six neurointerventional fellows in five countries observed live cases performed by experienced neurointerventionalists (mentors) in six different high-volume neurovascular centers across Europe equipped with live-streaming technology (Tegus Medical, Hamburg, Germany). Cases were prospectively evaluated during a 12-month period, followed by a final questionnaire after completion of the course.ResultsA total of 102/161 (63%) cases with a 1:1 allocation of fellow and mentor were evaluated during a 12-month period. Most frequent conditions were ischemic stroke (27.5%), followed by embolization of unruptured aneurysms (25.5%) and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) (15.7%). A high level of situational awareness was reported by fellows in 75.5% of all cases. After finishing the program, the general improvement of neurointerventional knowledge was evaluated to be extensive (1/6 fellows), substantial (3/6), and moderate (2/6). The specific fields of improvement were procedural knowledge (6/6 fellows), technical knowledge (3/6) and complication management (2/6).ConclusionOnline streaming technology facilitates location-independent training of complex neurointerventional procedures through high levels of situational awareness and can therefore supplement live hands-on-training. In addition, it leads to a training effect for fellows with a perceived improvement of their neurointerventional knowledge.

Situational Awareness – Key Safety Factor For The Officer Of The Watch

One of the main causes of many maritime accidents are errors caused by the human element. Analysis of many maritime accidents at sea shows that situational awareness is one of the most important safety factors. The purpose and objective of this paper is to define the concept, importance and application of situational awareness throughout history until today. It also aims to highlight the high level of situational awareness as an important safety factor possessed by the Officer of the Watch and the overall importance of the same in the maritime domain. It is important to define the role of International Maritime Organization and the World Health Organization in relation to seafarer regulations and situational awareness. To identify the prevalence of low situational awareness as a root cause of accidents through the analysis of statistical data. To demonstrate the consequences of low situational awareness among ship’s crew through examples of tragic maritime accidents, along with identifying human and organizational factors that significantly reduce situational awareness. By defining the role and application of maritime training and modern technological solutions in the efforts to prevent maritime accidents and improve the situational awareness of ship officers. The questionnaire was conducted with the aim of collecting data on the importance of situational awareness from the experienced mariners as a target group. The questionnaire also aimed to obtain more detailed information about the effectiveness offered by modern technological solutions to improve situational awareness. Based on the collected information, arguments and assertions about situational awareness as an important safety factor for the Officer of the Watch, safety recommendations are presented.

Science and exploration of the moon enabled by surface telerobotics

Tele-operated rovers have been a feature of space exploration for decades. Ground control teams that operate these rovers generally comprise a robot operations team supported by science and robot engineering groups. But, in the future, astronauts will also remotely operate rovers. Several studies have proposed that astronauts should be able to control rovers from orbiting spacecraft such as the Deep Space Gateway (DSG). This concept of operations offers several benefits to human exploration. Firstly, it will enable astronauts to expand their sphere of influence beyond the confines of a spacecraft. Secondly, it will enable astronauts to safely perform surface work via an avatar. Thirdly, it will reduce the expenditure of life support consumables, and fourthly, it will spare astronauts from spending time on radiation-ravaged planetary surfaces. But integrating tele-operated rovers into human space exploration raises important questions. What system configurations are effective? Which modes of operation and control are most appropriate? When is it appropriate to rely (or not) on tele-operated rovers? The proposed research sought to answer the first two of these questions. It was designed to simulate three mission phases: pre-mission planning, site survey, and surface asset deployment. The study employed a derived terrain model located in the Lunares hab facility (located in Pila, Poland). Operators drove a Turtle rover through task sequences to survey sites while avoiding hazards/obstacles. This study simulated remote rover operations that assessed crew workload, crew situation awareness, robot asset acquisition, task sequence success, system issues, and rover performance. This study demonstrated basic competence in teleoperated rover driving, but more work must be conducted to produce a system that can behave reliably over many weeks and/or kilometers. Results indicated interactive monitoring is an effective strategy for crew-centric surface telerobotics. Safeguarded driving using this mode of operation enabled participants to perform each task successfully – success being measured by the metric of completing assigned tasks and completing the course. Participants maintained good situational awareness (SA) with low effort using interactive visualization of the rover state. From post-test debriefs it was determined participants maintained a high level of SA during operations and that the activity employed via the operator interface was a contributing factor to achieving these high levels. Since the test sessions were designed to be increasingly difficult in terms of task complexity it was expected that SA would decrease and task loading would increase across tasks and the data confirms this was the case.

Handling effective communication to support awareness in rescue operations

AbstractEfficient rescue operations require a high level of situation awareness amongst decision‐makers and first responders for the purpose of achieving operations successfully and reducing losses. Moreover, a common operational picture between involved actors is required in order to support decision‐making. Therefore, different organisations and agencies have to collaborate, cooperate, and coordinate their actions with each other. Hence, effective interactions and communications between participants are vital to fulfil these essential needs. However, emergency actors still lack backing to exchange information effectively and ensure a common operational picture in order to reach shared situational awareness. For this reason, we aim to develop and implement Rescue MODES, a communication system oriented to support situation awareness amongst French emergency actors in rescue operations. In this paper, we examine and analyse actors’ activities and interactions, so that the system will be based on the real needs of actors. We start by studying and modelling the communications, interactions, and information flow. This modelling is based on an application ontology. Then, we define requirements for good communication in these operations and present some existing systems in France and how each system responds to these requirements.

Workflow disruptions and provider situation awareness in acute care: An observational study with emergency department physicians and nurses

BackgroundThe fast-paced and rapidly changing environment of an Emergency Department (ED) requires providers to have a high level of situation awareness (SA). However, acute clinical care also encompasses a multitude of interruption-laden work processes that might degrade SA. It is therefore important to understand how frequent interruptions affect ED provider cognition in general and SA in particular. ObjectiveWe aimed to examine how sources and contents of provider workflow interruptions influence situation awareness of ED physicians and nurses. MethodsThis prospective, multi-method study combined standardized observations, self-reports of ED providers, and ED administrative data of staffing and patient load. Expert observers identified ED providers’ workflow interruptions during 90min observation sessions. Afterwards, each provider reported perceived disruptiveness and situation awareness. Controlling for patient load, patient acuity and staffing, we conducted regression analyses to explore prospective associations between interruptions and provider outcomes. ResultsDuring 74 observation sessions of overall 110h and 40min, we observed 1205 workflow interruptions (mean rate: 10.9 interruptions/hour). Provider situation awareness was fairly high (M = 7.10; scale 0–10) with no difference between ED physicians and nurses. After controlling for ED workload data, we observed that high rates of interruptions were associated with lower levels of situation awareness (β = −0.27). Further analyses revealed that particularly interruptions by telephone/beeper, technical malfunctions as well as interruptive communication related to completed cases were correlated to low SA. DiscussionThis study in a naturalistic ED setting shows that ED physicians and nurses continuously cope with disruptions and interruptions. Our findings reveal that highly interruptive workflow environments impede providers' situation awareness. Moreover, it sheds light on specific sources and contents of interruptions that influence providers’ SA in acute care. ConclusionFrequent workflow interruptions can degrade ED providers’ situation awareness. A deeper understanding of how avoidable and unavoidable interruptions affect provider cognitions with particular focus on social and technology-related disruptions is required. Further emphasis should be placed on the effective application of work re-design in this context to foster safe and efficient patient care.

Timing: A key concept for both karateka (空手家) and emergency physicians

The importance of skills learned through extracurricular activities to medical education, including both athletics and the arts, is undeniable. In this reflective article we draw parallels between the skills learned through the practice of karate, specifically sparring, and those required to perform a patient-centered medical interview in the Emergency Department.Although a collaborative style is traditionally used for both undertakings,there are often good reasons to vary the timing and approach.A high level of situational awareness is necessary to perform either of these tasks effectively.

Perfusion techniques in minimally invasive setting

Further development and improvement of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) is paramount for the success in ‘minimally invasive cardiac surgery’. This requires advance in underling technology as well as a special mindset and a high level of situation awareness of perfusionist in order to balance safe perfusion and providing optimal conditions for the surgeon to operate. The necessity of this balance influences all stages of preparing and performing the surgical intervention and involve selection of equipment, methods and level of control of patient’s homeostasis and timely compensation for necessary deviations. There are examples presented: selection of heart-lung machine set and cannulation, and a choice of the method of preventing effective heart contraction during minimal invasive cardiac surgery. These examples demonstrate that decisions in minimal invasive setting is often a ‘maze’ choice with impact at all stages of intervention and all specialists involved. The team approach that coordinates efforts of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, perfusionist, and nurses is paramount to achieve the best clinical outcomes.

Optimizing Situational Awareness in Disaster Response Networks

In a wireless disaster response network, how does the quality of experience (QoE) of the user affect the level of situational awareness (SA)? Is maximum QoE necessary for high SA? In this empirical study, we propose a novel measurement approach to quantify SA based on the QoE of the user. The relationship between QoE and network quality of service (QoS) metrics such as delay and packet loss is well known. Therefore, quantifying the SA-QoE-QoS relationship will help the network operator to ensure a high level of SA when the network is under load, through parsimonious allocation of network resources such as spectrum and power. We first define an objective expression for SA in four contexts: surroundings awareness, target awareness, location awareness, and responsiveness (SETLR model). Using empirical data gathered from real-world experiments, we mathematically formulate SA as a function of QoE and show that this relationship is logistic in nature. An important observation is that maximum QoE is not necessary to ensure high SA; a mean opinion score of just 2-3 is necessary in our scenario. Next, we show through simulations that this new mathematical model of SA can be instantiated in a long-term evolution radio access network and efficiently used in network optimization techniques to avoid over-provisioning of resources.

Evaluating Situation Awareness: An Integrative Review.

Situation awareness (SA) refers to the conscious awareness of the current situation in relation to one's environment. In nursing, loss or failure to achieve high levels of SA is linked with adverse patient outcomes. The purpose of this integrative review is to examine various instruments and techniques used to measure SA among nurses across academic and clinical settings. Computerized database and ancestry search strategies resulted in 40 empirical research reports. Of the reports included in the review, 24 measured SA among teams that included nurses and 16 measured SA solely in nurses. Methods used to evaluate SA included direct and indirect methods. Direct methods included the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique and questionnaires. Indirect methods included observer rating instruments and performance outcome measures. To have a better understanding of how nurses' make decisions in complex work environments, reliable and valid measures of SA is crucial.

How to recognise a kick: A cognitive task analysis of drillers’ situation awareness during well operations

PurposeThe ability to monitor and detect anomalous changes in an oil well is a fundamental aspect of an offshore driller’s job, so as to maintain well control, the safety of the surrounding rig and minimize risk. Drillers are required to have a high level of situation awareness in order to recognise and interpret indicators that suggest that hazardous hydrocarbons may have entered the well bore (referred to as kick detection), allowing them to take the best actions to deal with the situation. The aim was to use cognitive task analysis methods to identify the expert SA skills required for the complex task of kick detection. MethodAn Applied Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA) of the SA components required for kick detection was conducted. 1. A technical task description was produced, using material extracted from well control manuals and a five day training course. 2. The SA components required for the kick detection task using the preliminary Drillers’ SA model. 3. The ACTA data were validated by three drilling experts. ResultsThe specific cognitive skills associated with maintaining SA that were required for accurate kick detection were: attending to and recognizing changes in the drilling parameters, understanding their significance as kick indicators in the context of a mental picture of the well state, and anticipating what could result in a kick, necessitating flow checking and/or shutting in actions. LimitationsACTA methods are prone to research bias however actions were taken to minimize this. Practical implicationsTraining and work design recommendations based on the ACTA are outlined for supporting driller SA for effective well control and consequently to improve process safety. The study also illustrates how ACTA methods can be used to examine and support cognition in the workplace.

Mechanisms for maintaining situation awareness in the micro-neurosurgical operating room

Abstract Interactions in micro-neurosurgical operating rooms form a complex orchestration of labor and information flows. In the center, there is the focus on patient safety and outcome quality in shortest possible time, while a neurosurgeon is fully focused on the task using a surgical microscope. To guarantee a successful outcome, maintaining a high level of situation awareness (SA) is essential. Suspension of action due to instrument exchange, interaction with a device, or communication affects information flows and collaboration. Situation awareness underlies these interactions. To further understand the mechanisms of SA, we used observations and interviews to gain insight into interactions in micro-neurosurgical theaters. We describe behaviors and strategies exhibited to maintain the interaction flow, in particular, between the scrub nurse and the surgeon. Results show how interactions based on action prediction and active observation within the well-organized environment are influenced, both positively and negatively, by the reliance of the work on the microscope. From this understanding, we discuss the opportunities in future technologies and interfaces for supporting situation awareness maintenance in operating rooms.

Students' problem solving approaches for developing geologic models in the field

Understanding how geologists conduct fieldwork through analysis of problem solving has significant potential impact on field instruction methods within geology and other science fields. Recent work has highlighted many aspects of fieldwork, but the problem solving behaviors displayed by geologists during fieldwork and the associated cognitive processes remain poorly understood. We present research showing how geology students initiate and develop geologic models as part of the problem solving process. We qualitatively analyzed field notes and interview data from 36 undergraduate geoscientists engaged in field exams during a 6-week advanced field camp. Eight cognitive approaches grouped in two broad categories emerged from the data that show how students develop geologic models. Students employ both single and multiple model approaches with varying degrees of success and frequency. The success of any given approach appears to be dependent on the level of students' geologic situation awareness. The development of multiple geologic models leads to a higher rate of success in general, because of the inherent flexibility to accommodate newly collected data. Instructors should continue to teach a multiple model approach until students have the proper geologic skills to ensure a high level of situation awareness and exhibit expert characteristics in the field. Furthermore, students should be instructed to eliminate weaker models as they progress throughout each mapping assignment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 1109–1131, 2015.