The issue of how to support situation awareness among operators of complex systems or vehicles is a growing concern in a number of industries, especially when automation takes the operators partly "out of the loop." Cognitive theory suggests that comprehension of the flow of events is an active process, constrained by the dynamics and modularity of attention and memory. Focusing on issues of commercial aviation, we review the meaning of the term situation awareness both definition ally and by way of examples. We then discuss the cognitive factors involved in achieving and maintaining situation awareness, drawing on recent cognitive theory to clarify their interactions. Finally, having emphasized the need for a more analytic and precise understanding of situation awareness, we discuss strengths and weaknesses of various empirical approaches that might be used toward that end.

Human factors/ergonomics professionals regularly study the situation awareness (SA) problems of pilots, air traffic controllers, automobile drivers, power plant workers, ambulance dispatchers, urban search and rescue professionals, and unmanned vehicle operators, to mention a few. The challenge has been to define SA operationally and devise measurement strategies that focus on attention and recall on the one hand and relevant actions on the other. Although there have been many successes, challenges remain. This review is organized in three parts. Under "What?" we discuss definitions of SA, their interpretations in terms of human information processing and ecological psychological theories, as well as techniques for measuring SA. Under "So what?" we introduce SA applications-information requirements, technological tools, and training systems-that support the way people work and live. Finally, under "Now what?" we discuss future directions for SA research. Table 1.1. Two Theoretical Views of Situation Awareness Aspect Information Processing Ecological Psychology Emphasis "What's inside your head" "What your head's inside of" (Mace, 1977) Key ideas for SA Mental representation, Direct perception, affordances of long-term working memory objects, events [and situations] Goal of research Diagnostics-what is noticed and Adaptation-how does organism remembered; what is overlooked learn to distinguish situations and their action implications? Nature of stimulation Sensation-based, elemental Rich, nested structure, invariants over time and space Meaning and action Derived from memory, knowledge, Perceived directly as affordances potential inference of objects and events Sources: Neisser (1967), Gibson (1979).

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