Situation awareness

The construct situation awareness ( situational awareness, English:. Situation Awareness, therefore, also in the German often abbreviated to SA ) denotes the state of being aware of his surroundings applicable, sometimes the process to reach such a state.

Model

For the description of the process that leads to a true right situation awareness, the model of Endsley can be used. Thereafter, the process proceeds as follows: 1 The objects in the environment are perceived. 2 Their meaning is understood. 3 The changes in the environment and the future state of the objects are accurate predicted for a sufficient period of time.

Separate from the Situation awareness - - decision processes, implementation planning and action After that follow.

From the model it follows that important prerequisites for a situational awareness is the ability to perceive and a minimum of attention. Factors that contribute to a good situational awareness, are ( according to Redden, 2001) experience, trained cognitive skills and high speed and accuracy of perception.

Capture

As a construct of situation awareness is not directly measurable, missing or inadequate situational awareness also manifests itself not necessarily in visible defects, incidents or accidents. Consequently, an observation leads only limited to statements about the situation awareness. However, observation in the work environment or in the experiment and survey of the self-assessment means for detecting situation awareness.

Importance

Many human activities, especially in the process and vehicle guidance but also medicine, require an adequate situational awareness; many cases of human error can be explained by insufficient situational awareness. As a result of technical or organizational measures can be introduced which increase situational awareness and prevent the loss of situational awareness and the safety in the process, increase in the management of the vehicle or generally in man-machine system. Examples are the constant presentation of relevant parameters in process visualization systems, automatic announcement of altitude during the landing approach or the bell of the typewriter shortly before reaching the end of line.