Situation Awareness As a Predictor of Performance in En Route Air Traffic Controllers.

Abstract

In this study, air traffic control instructors controlled simulated traffic while three techniques for determining situation awareness (SA) were implemented. SA was assessed using a self-report measure (SART); a query method that removed information on the plan-view display (SAGAT); a query technique that did not have a memory component (SPAM); and the detection of errors integrated into the scenarios (implicit performance). We used these measures of SA together with a measure of workload, NASA TDC, to predict two different performance measures. One performance measure was an over-the-shoulder, subjective assessment by a subject matter expert (SME). The other performance measure was a count of the number of control actions remaining to be performed at the end of the scenario. The SME evaluation was predicted by workload and the controller's appreciation of both the present and the future. The remaining-actions count (RAC) was predicted by the controller's appreciation of the future. In fact, an appreciation of the present led to poorer RAC scores: The better the participant was at answering questions about the present or the better he or she understood the present situation, the larger the number of actions remained to be performed. The results have implications for the relationships among workload, situation awareness, and performance, and suggest limitations on several of the measures currently proposed as SA techniques. The results confirm that future versus present is an important conceptual difference in air traffic control. More importantly, the results suggest that a controller who remains overly focused on the present may do so at the expense of the future.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA360807

Entities

People

  • Carla A. Hackworth
  • Danko Nikolic
  • Francis T. Durso
  • Jerry Crutchfield
  • Todd R. Truitt

Organizations

  • University of Oklahoma

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Traffic
  • Air Traffic Controllers
  • Aircrafts
  • Aviation Medicine
  • Complex Systems
  • Computers
  • Instructors
  • Measurement
  • Military Aircraft
  • Psychology
  • Regression Analysis
  • Situational Awareness
  • Social Sciences
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States
  • Workload

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.