Situation Awareness Theory Research Articles

The Impact of Load on Dynamic versus Static Situational Knowledge While Driving

Situation awareness (SA) was examined while driving in a driving simulator under load or no load conditions. Participants drove through two simulated maps and were periodically interrupted, the driving paused, and were asked questions regarding dynamic (i.e., moving) and static (i.e., non-moving) aspects of the environment. Participants in the load condition also had to count backwards by sevens during the drive. Results indicate that driving under load conditions leads to an overall drop in performance in processing of the dynamic elements of the scene, but no such decrement was observed for the static elements. Implications for current theories of SA and applied attention, as well as the potential relevance to understanding impaired driving performance from cell phone use, are discussed.

Cognitive processes as integrative component for developing expert decision-making systems: A workflow centered framework

The development of expert decision-making systems, which improve task performance and reduce errors within an intra-operative clinical workspace, is critically dependent on two main aspects: (a) Analyzing the clinical requirements and cognitive processes within the workflow and (b) providing an optimal context for accurate situation awareness through effective intra-operative information visualization. This paper presents a workflow centered framework and its theoretical underpinnings to design expert decision-making systems. The framework integrates knowledge of the clinical workflow based on the requirements within the clinical workspace. Furthermore, it builds upon and integrates the theory of situation awareness into system design to improve decision-making. As an application example, this framework has been used to design an intra-operative visualization system (IVS), which provides image guidance to the clinicians to perform minimally invasive procedure. An evaluative study, comparing the traditional ultrasound guided procedure with the new developed IVS, has been conducted with expert intervention radiologists and medical students. The results reveal significant evidence for improved decision-making when using the IVS. Therefore, it can be stated that this study demonstrates the benefits of integrating knowledge of cognitive processes into system development to support clinical decision-making and hence improvement of task performance and prevention of errors.

Situation Awareness: Review of Mica Endsley's 1995 Articles on Situation Awareness Theory and Measurement

This article summarizes two articles by Endsley on situation awareness (SA) and presents the influence of the concept on subsequent practice and theory of human factors. In her articles, Endsley integrated and consolidated existing research done in the prior decade. I carefully examined and integrated subsequent articles on the SA topic written by Endsley and by others. This integration revealed that SA has been applied to areas of training, error analysis, design, selection, teamwork, and automation. Some key issues related to automation and SA are reviewed in detail. Situation awareness is a viable and important construct that still possesses some controversy over measurement issues. Ways in which human factors practitioners have used the SA construct and numerous citations are provided to assist designers.

Distributed situation awareness in an Airborne Warning and Control System: application of novel ergonomics methodology

This paper applies a distributed theory of situation awareness based upon the analysis of interactions between agents (both human and non-human) in an Airborne Warning and Control System (Boeing E3D Sentry). The basic tenet of this approach is that agents within a system each hold their own component(s) of situation awareness, which may be very different from, but compatible with, other agent’s view of the situation. However, it is argued that it is not always necessary to have complete sharing of this awareness, as different system agents have different purposes. Situation awareness is regarded as a dynamic and collaborative process that binds agents together on tasks on a moment-by-moment basis. Situation awareness is conceptualised as residing at a system, not an individual level. Data were collected from crew-members in theE3D during a series of simulated air battles. These data pertained to task structure, communications between the crew and the collection and analysis of crew actions at critical decision points. All phases of operations were considered. From these data propositional networks were developed in which key knowledge objects were identified. Analysis of these networks clearly shows how the location and nature of distributed situation awareness changes across agents with regard to the phase of operation/air battle.

Distributed situation awareness in dynamic systems: theoretical development and application of an ergonomics methodology

The purpose of this paper is to propose foundations for a theory of situation awareness based on the analysis of interactions between agents (i.e. both human and non-human) in subsystems. This approach may help to promote a better understanding of technology-mediated interaction in systems, as well as helping in the formulation of hypotheses and predictions concerning distributed situation awareness. It is proposed that agents within a system each hold their own situation awareness, which may be very different from (although compatible with) that of other agents. It is argued that we should not always hope for, or indeed want, sharing of this awareness, as different system agents have different purposes. This view marks situation awareness as a dynamic and collaborative process binding agents together on tasks on a moment-by-moment basis. Implications of this viewpoint for the development of a new theory of, and accompanying methodology for, distributed situation awareness are offered.

Integrating Collaborative Awareness in Synchronous Distributed Groupware

This paper presents a model for integrating collaborative awareness in development of a synchronous distributed groupware, which was expected to enhance team collaboration in home modification tasks. The model, which is a synthesis of Situation Awareness and Activity theory, has three levels of collaborative awareness, comprising subject-collaborator member, object-outcome, spatial-temporal relationship, and mediation-projector components. These components were hypothesized to support remote collaborators in performing collaborative tasks effectively. We report the findings of the first-level perception that tested the importance of subject-collaborator member and object-outcome components in enhancing awareness. Our experiment revealed that both components were frequently acquired during collaboration. If only the subject-collaborator member component was available, subjects made several errors, and if only the object-outcome component was present, subjects could not achieve common ground, nor distribute the task easily, or share their customization errors. Therefore, a groupware that supported both subject-collaborator member and object-outcome component is preferred in collaborative task performance.

Objective measures of situation awareness in a simulated medical environment.

One major limitation in the use of human patient simulators is a lack of objective, validated measures of human performance. Objective measures are necessary if simulators are to be used to evaluate the skills and training of medical practitioners and teams or to evaluate the impact of new processes or equipment design on overall system performance. Situation awareness (SA) refers to a person's perception and understanding of their dynamic environment. This awareness and comprehension is critical in making correct decisions that ultimately lead to correct actions in medical care settings. An objective measure of SA may be more sensitive and diagnostic than traditional performance measures. This paper reviews a theory of SA and discusses the methods required for developing an objective measure of SA within the context of a simulated medical environment. Analysis and interpretation of SA data for both individual and team performance in health care are also presented.

Theory of Activity and Situation Awareness

The intent of this article is to show that Russian theory of activity, only now made available to Western scientists, can describe and explain phenomena noted in the West and can do it sometimes more comprehensively than other cognitive theories. Activity theory as described by Bedny and Meister (1997) is still quite unfamiliar to the mass of Western psychologists and ergonomists. Because no single article can encompass all behavioral phenomena, one construct, situation awareness (SA) has been selected as a case study to show what activity theory can do. SA as described by Endsley (1995) is not a simple construct but incorporates almost all variables involved in a comprehensive theory of human behavior, with particular attention to its cognitive elements. SA phenomena include aspects of attention, perception, symbol analysis and interpretation, memory, anticipation of future states, deduction from partial information, and so forth. The position is advanced that SA phenomena can only be understood as part of the structure of a comprehensive theory of activity. In particular, SA must be viewed as part of cognitive activity that is intensely dynamic.

Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems

This paper presents a theoretical model of situation awareness based on its role in dynamic human decision making in a variety of domains. Situation awareness is presented as a predominant concern in system operation, based on a descriptive view of decision making. The relationship between situation awareness and numerous individual and environmental factors is explored. Among these factors, attention and working memory are presented as critical factors limiting operators from acquiring and interpreting information from the environment to form situation awareness, and mental models and goal-directed behavior are hypothesized as important mechanisms for overcoming these limits. The impact of design features, workload, stress, system complexity, and automation on operator situation awareness is addressed, and a taxonomy of errors in situation awareness is introduced, based on the model presented. The model is used to generate design implications for enhancing operator situation awareness and future directions for situation awareness research.

Simulation studies of international conflict

This paper focuses on the role of simulation tools, such as the Simulated Highways for Intelligent Vehicle Algorithms (SHIVA), which enable researchers to design and rapidly prototype potential reasoning systems that can help demonstrate competent tactical-level behavior. The paper also describes PolySAPIENT (distributed Situation Awareness Planner Implementing Effective Navigation in Traffic), a tactical driving system consisting of multiple independent reasoning agents. The authors discuss how PolySAPIENT relies on simulation to optimize values for internal parameters and how it creates realistic driving scenarios using techniques derived from situation awareness theory.