Measurement of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems

TLDR

Empirical measurement of situation awareness is reviewed, highlighting advantages, disadvantages, and theoretical and practical limitations of existing methods. The study presents two investigations into the validity and intrusiveness of a query‑based technique for measuring situation awareness. The technique interrupts simulation tasks to query operators about their situation awareness, and the two studies evaluate its performance. Both studies demonstrate that the query technique is non‑intrusive, avoids human memory limitations, and other validity studies support its use, leading to recommendations for diverse settings.

Abstract

Methodologies for the empirical measurement of situation awareness are reviewed, including a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each method and the potential limitations of the measures from a theoretical and practical viewpoint. Two studies are presented that investigate questions of validity and intrusiveness regarding a query-based technique. This technique requires that a simulation of the operational tasks be momentarily interrupted in order to query operators on their situation awareness. The results of the two studies indicate that the query technique is not intrusive on normal subject behavior during the trial and does not suffer from limitations of human memory, which provides an indication of empirical validity. The results of other validity studies regarding the technique are discussed along with recommendations for its use in measuring situation awareness in varied settings.