The enhancement of operator situation awareness (SA) has become a major designgoal for those developing operator interfaces, automation concepts and training programs ina wide variety of fields, including aircraft, air traffic control, power plants, and advancedmanufacturing systems. This dramatic growth in interest in SA, beginning in the mid-1980’s and accelerating through the 1990’s, was spurred on by many factors, chief amongthem the challenges of a new class of technology. One can easily see that situation awareness has always been needed in order forpeople to perform tasks effectively. Prehistoric man undoubtedly needed to be aware ofmany cues in his environment in order to successfully hunt and keep from being hunted.For many years, having good situation awareness was largely a matter of training andexperience — learning the important cues to watch for and what they meant. With the advent of the machine age, our emphasis shifted to creating a new class oftools to help people perform tasks, largely those physical in nature. The computer age andnow the information age have followed rapidly on the heals of basic mechanization. Thetools provided are no longer simple; they are amazingly complex, focused on not justphysical tasks, but elaborate perceptual and cognitive tasks as well. The pilot of today’saircraft, the air traffic controller, the power plant operator, the anesthesiologist: all mustperceive and comprehend a dazzling array of data which is often changing very rapidly. Ihave taken to calling this challenge the information gap (Figure 1).Today’s systems are capable of producing a huge amount of data, both on the statusof their own components, and on the status of the external environment. Due toachievements in various types of datalink and internet technologies, systems can alsoprovide data on almost anything anywhere in the world. The problem with today’s systemsis not a lack of information, but finding what is needed when it is needed.Unfortunately, in the face of this torrent of data, many operators may be even lessinformed than ever before. This is because there is a huge gap between the tons of databeing produced and disseminated and people’s ability to find the bits that are needed andprocess them together with the other bits to arrive at the actual information that is requiredfor their decisions. This information must be integrated and interpreted correctly as well; afrequently tricky task. This problem is real and ongoing, whether the job is in the cockpitor behind a desk. It is becoming widely recognized that more data does not equal moreinformation. Issues of automation and “intelligent systems” have frequently onlyexacerbated the problem, rather than aided it (Endsley & Kiris, 1995; Sarter & Woods,1995).The criteria for what we are seeking from system designs have correspondinglychanged. In addition to designing systems that provide the operator with the neededinformation and capabilities, we must also insure that it is provided in a way that is useablecognitively as well as physically. We want to know how well the system design supportsthe operator’s ability to get the needed information under dynamic operational constraints.(i.e. How well does it bridge the information gap?) This design objective and measure ofmerit has been termed situation awareness.

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Theoretical Underpinnings of Situation Awareness, A Critical Review

The Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) is a global tool developed to assess SA across all of its elements based on a comprehensive assessment of operator SA requirements. SAGAT queries allow for detailed information about subject SA to be collected on an element by element basis that can be evaluated against reality, thus providing an objective assessment of operator SA. In Mica Endsley and Mark Rodgers, people found that the percentage of aircraft reported by experienced controllers via SAGAT significantly decreased with increases in the number of aircraft in an air traffic control simulation. Based on the goal-directed task analysis, a list of the SA requirements for a domain can be constructed either as a whole or for particular operator goals and subgoals. The SAGAT technique has thus far been shown to have a high degree of validity, sensitivity, and reliability for measuring SA.

Direct Measurement of Situation Awareness: Validity and Use of SAGAT

Situation awareness (SA) has become a widely used construct within the human factors community, the focus of considerable research over the past 25 years. This research has been used to drive the development of advanced information displays, the design of automated systems, information fusion algorithms, and new training approaches for improving SA in individuals and teams. In recent years, a number of papers criticized the Endsley model of SA on various grounds. I review those criticisms here and show them to be based on misunderstandings of the model. I also review several new models of SA, including situated SA, distributed SA, and sensemaking, in light of this discussion and show how they compare to existing models of SA in individuals and teams.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1555343415572631

Situation Awareness Misconceptions and Misunderstandings

Decentralized command and control settings like those found in the military are rife with complexity and change These settings typically involve dozens, if not hundreds to thousands, of heterogeneous players coordinating in a distributed fashion in a dynamically networked battlefield laden with sensor data, intelligence reports, communications, and plans emanating from many different perspectives Consider the concept of team situation awareness in this setting What does it mean for a team to be aware of a situation or, more importantly, of a critical change in a situation? Is it sufficient or necessary for all individuals on the team to be independently aware? Or is there some more holistic awareness that emerges as team members interact? We re-examine the concept of team situation awareness in decentralized systems beyond an individual-oriented knowledge-based construct by considering it as a team interaction-based phenomenon A theoretical framework for a process-based measure called ‘coordinated awa

Measuring team situation awareness in decentralized command and control environments

This article presents a constrained review of human factors issues relevant to adaptive automation (AA), including designing complex system interfaces to support AA, facilitating human–computer interaction and crew interactions in adaptive system operations, and considering workload associated with AA management in the design of human roles in adaptive systems. Unfortunately, these issues have received limited attention in earlier reviews of AA. This work is aimed at supporting a general theory of human-centered automation advocating humans as active information processors in complex system control loops to support situation awareness and effective performance. The review demonstrates the need for research into user-centered design of dynamic displays in adaptive systems. It also points to the need for discretion in designing transparent interfaces to facilitate human awareness of modes of automated systems. Finally, the review identifies the need to consider critical human–human interactions in designing adaptive systems. This work describes important branches of a developing framework of AA research and contributes to the general theory of human-centered automation.

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On the Design of Adaptive Automation for Complex Systems

: Information warfare and its primary objective of achieving information dominance over enemy forces have arisen as a major area of emphasis for future military actions. The concept of information dominance and the issues involved in attaining it are explored through a model of situation awareness within the context of the type of complex, distributed crews (or military units) envisioned in future military operations. Achieving information dominance involves far more than having more data than the enemy. It will require that available data be transformed into relevant information in a timely manner for a multitude of forces, each with varied and dynamically changing but inter-related information needs. Further, the information must be properly understood by each within the context of a joint mission. The difficulty of accomplishing this task is not to be underestimated, however. This is exactly where an understanding of situation awareness and the factors that impact it are essential. By examining what is known about how people access, assimilate and interpret information to develop situation awareness as well as how this fits within the decision making and action cycle, clear directions for the development of systems to support the goal of information dominance can be established.

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Situation Awareness Information Dominance & Information Warfare.

Situation awareness is presented as a fundamental requirement for good airmanship, forming the basis for pilot decision making and performance. To develop a better understanding of the role of situation awareness in flying, an analysis was performed to determine the specific situation awareness information requirements for commercial aircraft pilots. This was conducted as a goal-directed task analysis in which pilots' major goals, subgoals, decisions, and associated situation awareness information requirements were delineated based on elicitation from experienced commercial airline pilots. A determination of the major situation awareness information requirements for visual and instrument flight was developed from this analysis, providing a foundation for future system development which seeks to enhance pilot situation awareness and provide a basis for the development of situation awareness measures for commercial flight.

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William M. Jones

Papers

Situation Awareness Information Dominance & Information Warfare.

Situation Awareness Information Requirements for Commercial Airline Pilots