Situation Awareness in Dynamic Decision Making: Effects of Practice and Working Memory

The goal of this research is (a) to investigate the effects of task practice on situation awareness (SA); (b) to investigate how cognitive ability – in particular, working memory – moderates this practice effect on SA; and (c) to investigate effects of the SA measurement procedure (covering or uncovering the display while queries are answered). Task practice and working memory influence SA. However, the dynamics of the relationship between working memory and SA over time are not well understood, particularly with regard to using different SA measures. This research reports an experiment in which different SA measurement methods were used while participants played a computer simulation over several days. SA was measured using two query methods: a covered method in which questions were asked while the display was blanked out, and an uncovered method in which questions were asked while the display was shown. A working memory measure was collected from participants. Results indicate that the relationship between working memory and SA diminishes with task practice and differs between a covered and uncovered method. We also found that SA improvement with practice depends on the way in which SA is measured. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding SA development, SA measurement, and the relationship of working memory in this process. The results from this study have clear implications for systems design, for the design of learning aids, and for SA measurement.