Military%20Psychology:%20Situation%20Awareness

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Military PsychologySituation Awareness

• Dr. Steve Kass
• University of West Florida

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Situation Awareness Definitions
Is SA a construct, phenomenon, process, or
product?

• Situation Awareness
• The perception of the elements in the
  environment within a volume of time and space,
  the comprehension of their meaning, and the
  projection of their status in the near future
  (Endsley, 1988)
• -Skilled behavior that encompasses the processes
  by which task-relevant information is extracted,
  integrated, assessed, and acted upon (Kass,
  Herschler, Companion, 1991).
• Continuous extraction of environmental
  information, integration of this information with
  previous knowledge to form a coherent mental
  picture, and the use of that picture in directing
  further perception and anticipating future
  events (Dominguez, 1994).

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Levels of SA

• Levels of SA
• 1 Awareness of information
• 2 Comprehension of its meaning
• 3 Projection of future status

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Situation Awareness Components

• Components of SA
• Spatial Awareness
• Loss of SA GLOC, spatial disorientation
• System Awareness
• Loss of SA insufficient scan, distraction, lack
  of checklist
• Task Awareness
• Loss of SA Competing tasks, poor task
  management, lack of vigilance

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Rasmussens Skill-, Rule-, and Knowledge-based
performance model
High
Novice
Analytic
Performance
Attentional Demand
Intuitive
Expert
Low
Automatic
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Situation Awareness Model

• System Capability
• Interface Design
• Stress Workload
• Complexity
• Automation

Task/System Factors
Feedback
SITUATION AWARENESS
Projection of Future Status Level 3
Perception of elements in Current Situation Level
1
Performance Of Actions
Compre-hension of current Situation Level 2
State of the Environment
DECISION
Individual Factors
Information Processing Mechanisms

• Goals Objectives
• Preconceptions
• (Expectations)

Long Term Memory Stores
Automaticity

• Abilities
• Experience
• Training

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Measuring SA
Mental Models

• Typical Constructs measured in trying to assess SA

SA
Pattern Recognition
Performance
Working Memory
Attention
Workload
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Factors Affecting Loss ofSituation Awareness

• Attention
• attentional demands of controlled processes
  (k-based performance)
• Pattern Recognition
• inability to perceive pattern of cues
  (recognition-primed DM)
• Workload
• tasks too demanding or too many at once
• Mental models
• inadequate understanding of system or state
• Working Memory
• failure to adequately chunk information

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Attention

• Narrowing of attention under stress (high
  workload) adversely impacts SA

• Examples
• Commercial plane crashes in the Everglades when
  aircrew becomes fixated on a warning light while
  the plane slowly descends into the ground.
• Outfielder for the Mets tosses ball to a fan
  after making the second out while runner on base
  easily scores.

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Pattern Recognition
Perceptual Recognition comparing incoming
stimulus information with stored knowledge in
order to categorize the information.
QB reading pattern of defense
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Workload

• Workload often used as a surrogate measure for
  SA.
• Note reference to workload in SA measures such as
  CLSA and NASA TLX

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Mental Models

• Mental Models how people mentally represent the
  task they are performing
• Represent organize info by interconnected
  chunks (schema)
• Experts organize schemata into larger, more
  meaningful/ easy to access chunks.
• Novices may not see all relevant connections
• Use mnemonic devices to help novices organize
  and retrieve info

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Working Memory

• Ability to chunk information may be what
  distinguishes expert decision-making from that of
  novices
• Magical number 7

IBMUSANBCGREUWF
Experts recall larger chunks of information (more
chess pieces) when they recognize a meaningful
pattern. When the pattern is random, performance
same as novices. Commercial pilots may have to
monitor and react to up to 400 instruments and
gauges.
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Types of SA Measures

• Subjective Ratings
• E.g., China Lake SA Rating Scale, Situation
  Awareness Rating Technique, SA Supervisory Rating
  Form
• Performance-based
• Ability to regain control from dangerous
  attitudes
• Query
• SAGAT

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Situation Awareness Rating Technique
Low
High
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Instability of Situation
Variability of Situation
Complexity of Situation
Arousal
Spare Mental Capacity
Concentration
Division of Attention
Information Quantity
Information Quality
Familiarity
Demand on attentional resources
Supply of attentional resources
Under-standing of situation
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Performance-Based Measures of SA

• Performance-based SA measures
• ex Ability to correct from unusual attitude (in
  simulator)

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Query-based Measures of SA

• SAGAT Situation Awareness Global Assessment
  Technique
• Halt simulation
• Black-out displays
• Randomly selected questions
• Pilot recall

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Problem of SA Measurement
SA is Difficult to measure Self-report measures
- Only aware of what you are aware
of Performance-based measures Intrusive,
measure affects performance Query-based might
only tap memory
6 OClock Problem Can not assess your awareness
of the things you are not aware of.
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Experiment Driver Situation Awarenessas a
factor of Experience Level Cell Phone Usage
Kass, Cole, Stanny, 2007
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Driving Infractions
Experiment Driver Situation Awarenessas a
factor of Experience Level Cell Phone Usage
Kass, Cole, Stanny, 2007
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ImprovingSituation Awareness

• Cue Filtering eliminate irrelevant cues
  (clutter) that interfere with accurate assessment
  of situation
• Augmented Displays displays that highlight or
  overlay actual information to make it more
  salient
• Spatial Organization arranging displays to
  capitalize on spatial relationships (e.g.,
  pop-out effect)
• Automate Status Updates as the environment
  changes the system should warn the user of change
• Train Users to Improve Attention?

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Cue Filtering for Improving SA

• Removal of clutter (irrelevant cues) in training
  allows learner to identify relevant cues better
• Real-world clutter can then be gradually phased
  back into training.

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Spatial Organization in Display Design for
Improving SA

• Display design capitalizing on spatial
  relationships
• Pop-out effect

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Tactile Situation Awareness System
Tactile stimulation used to prevent spatial
disorientation Tactile cues can provide status
updates regardless of where attention is
currently focused
Human factors application of tactile research
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Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS)

• Map surrounding space to the torso tactually
• Intuitive in three dimensions
• Non-visual
• Non-competing
• Continuous source
• Utilizes seat of the pants sense

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TSAS Performance MeansRMSE
TSAS
Off
On
No
M 4.55 SD 3.55
M 4.33 SD 3.48
Secondary Task
M 7.24 SD 3.73
M 5.75 SD 3.06
Yes

• RMSE for helicopter hover under 20/200 viewing
  conditions (White out)
• Secondary task was a simple arithmetic task

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Augmented Reality Displays
Augmented Displays - display that improves upon
reality by superimposing info over actual
environment ex thermal imaging color codes
objects by temperature
HUDs superimpose display information on the PVA
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Mindfulness Training and SA?

• Few, if any, attempts to improve SA have focused
  on the human component of the human-machine
  systems
• Research idea mindfulness training to increase
  ability to concentrate and improve attention

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Experiment Mindfulness SAImpact of
mindfulness training on situation awareness while
driving

• Mindfulness Moving and sharpening the focus of
  awareness within the field of consciousness.
• Concentration Actively maintaining ones
  controlled focus of attention for designated
  periods of time

• Mindfulness training Buddhist Psychology
  Class
• Control group Experimental Psychology Class

SA questions correct (out of 9)
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Experiment Mindfulness SAImpact of
mindfulness training on situation awareness while
driving
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
1. Situation Awareness -- .80 .61 -.65 -.14 -.11 -.01
2. Mindfulness -- .69 -.49 -.07 .10 -.61
3. Concentration -- -.40 -.08 .12 -.20
4. Stopping violations -- .13 .03 -.20
5. Speeding Violations -- .01 -.07
6. Vehicle Collisions -- -.04
7. Pedestrian Collisions --
p lt .05. p lt .01.
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SA Medical Training

• Gaba et als suggestions for training SA in
  medical applications
• Provide practice scanning instruments and
  environment to maximize perception of cues from
  all relevant data streams
• Provide explicit training in allocation of
  attention using low fidelity simulations, and
  multi-faceted training in high fidelity
  simulations
• Provide enhanced training in situation assessment
  and on pattern matching of cues to known disease
  and fault conditions