Situation Awareness of Commanders: A Cognitive Model

This paper discusses a computational model of situation awareness (SA) for military command and control in complex battle situations. Cognitive modeling is a research method that does not forgive vagueness. How do military commanders create awareness in a highly complex and uncertain world? The model described in this paper simulates computationally some of the cognitive operations performed by commanders during the evaluation of a complex battle situation. Although the set of cognitive processes that support SA are still not well understood, we have hypothesized a metaarchitecture involving: information gathering, assessment, and alternative generation. The cognitive model reported here paves the road towards a more complete and valid representation. The model was implemented using ACT-R, a cognitive architecture, and tested with scenarios running in OTB, a simulation tool for war scenarios.