Online Tools of Situation Awarenness

With the projected increase in air traffic over the next few years, it is important to assess and understand air traffic controller (ATCo) situation awareness (SA) in different scenarios. SA is difficult to measure; however, different methods currently exist. Bacon and Strybel (2012) used an online-probe technique to measure student ATCo SA during scenarios in which the participants managed air traffic. Online-probing techniques are different from offline-probing because they allow the scenario to keep running while the participant answers the probe questions, rather than freezing the scenario and blanking the displays.

Criticisms of the online-probing technique include the fact that it has yet to be sufficiently validated, and that the online-probing method may affect SA. However, Strybel, Vu, Kraut, Battiste, and Johnson (2010) conducted a simulation in which the online-probe technique was evaluated and further validated for its effectiveness. Bacon and Strybel (2012) found no indication of the online-probing method affecting SA. The time to detect off-nominal events and the number of loss of separation produced due to these off-nominal events was not changed by the type of question administered, suggesting that SA was not affected by the procedure.

References

Bacon, P. L., & Strybel, T. Z. (2012). Assessment of the validity and intrusiveness of online probe questions for situation awareness in a simulated air traffic management task with student air traffic controllers. Safety Science, 56, 89-95, doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2012.06.019.