University of Kentucky
Losing Track and Losing Out: Improving Situation Awareness
Institution
University of Kentucky
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
C.M. Carswell
Abstract
As we move through our daily lives, we have varying degrees of awareness about what is going on around us. Such situation awareness allows us to foresee potential dangers early enough to respond to them quickly and safely. However, good situation awareness is becoming more difficult to maintain as we engage in more multitasking and as distractions such as personal digital devices become commonplace. Our research evaluates ways to enhance situation awareness in several challenging environments. In Study 1, we evaluated the mental effort required to use several innovative displays destined for use by surgeons during laparoscopies (keyhole surgeries). When mental effort is reduced by these displays, situation awareness is increased as surgeons have more mental resources to devote to patient monitoring. In Study 2, we also looked at the effects of display design on situation awareness, this time in a control room for first responders to a simulated natural disaster. We identified several risks to mental workload and situation awareness that result when controllers customize their own displays. In the final study, we used training to enhance situation awareness. Participants received practice playing a simulated racing game. Some participants were interrupted periodically by blanking the displays. A control group received no such interruptions while practicing. Quick recovery from interruptions is aided by having good situation awareness and, therefore, participants who experienced interruptions during training were more likely than the control group to maintain it even when playing the game with no interruptions.
Losing Track and Losing Out: Improving Situation Awareness
As we move through our daily lives, we have varying degrees of awareness about what is going on around us. Such situation awareness allows us to foresee potential dangers early enough to respond to them quickly and safely. However, good situation awareness is becoming more difficult to maintain as we engage in more multitasking and as distractions such as personal digital devices become commonplace. Our research evaluates ways to enhance situation awareness in several challenging environments. In Study 1, we evaluated the mental effort required to use several innovative displays destined for use by surgeons during laparoscopies (keyhole surgeries). When mental effort is reduced by these displays, situation awareness is increased as surgeons have more mental resources to devote to patient monitoring. In Study 2, we also looked at the effects of display design on situation awareness, this time in a control room for first responders to a simulated natural disaster. We identified several risks to mental workload and situation awareness that result when controllers customize their own displays. In the final study, we used training to enhance situation awareness. Participants received practice playing a simulated racing game. Some participants were interrupted periodically by blanking the displays. A control group received no such interruptions while practicing. Quick recovery from interruptions is aided by having good situation awareness and, therefore, participants who experienced interruptions during training were more likely than the control group to maintain it even when playing the game with no interruptions.