SITUATION AWARENESS AND THE COGNITIVE MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEX-SYSTEMS

The issue of how to support situation awareness among operators of complex systems or vehicles is a growing concern in a number of industries, especially when automation takes the operators partly ''out of the loop.'' Cognitive theory suggests that comprehension of the flow of events is an active process, constrained by the dynamics and modularity of attention and memory. Focusing on issues of commercial aviation, we review the meaning of the term situation awareness both definitionally and by way of examples. We then discuss the cognitive factors involved in achieving and maintaining situation awareness, drawing on recent cognitive theory to clarify their interactions. Finally, having emphasized the need for a more analytic and precise understanding of situation awareness, we discuss strengths and weaknesses of various empirical approaches that might be used toward that end.