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Situation awareness (SA) is critical for decision making and performance in a wide variety of fields. It is quite challenging to achieve however, due to information overload, poorly integrated technologies, system complexity, workload, and automation. SA-oriented design (SAOD) was developed as a systematic methodology for addressing these challenges. The goal of the current paper is to review the contribution of SAOD and its usefulness for system design. SAOD is summarized and compared to other design approaches. An example of SAOD applied to command and control is provided. Results of SAOD applications are reviewed and directions for further development of SAOD are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical investigation of a complex command and control (C2) operation, the manoeuvres planning processes in Army land-battle situations, is conducted and several critical human factors associated with planning in a rapidly evolving environment are described. The implications for the application of the findings to other C2 domains are discussed.

The advent of artificial neural networks has stirred the imagination of many in the field of knowledge acquisition. There is an expectation that neural networks will play an important role in automating knowledge acquisition and encoding, however, the problem solving knowledge of a neural network is represented at a subsymbolic level and hence is very difficult for a human user to comprehend. One way to provide an understanding of the behavior of neural networks is to extract their problem solving knowledge in terms of rules that can be provided to users. Several papers which propose extracting rules from feedforward neural networks can be found in the literature, however, these approaches can only deal with networks with binary inputs. Furthermore, certain approaches lack theoretical support and their usefulness and effectiveness are debatable. Upon carefully analyzing these approaches, we propose a method to extract fuzzy rules from networks with continuous-valued inputs. The method was tested using a real-life problem (decision-making by pilots involving combat situations) and found to be effective.

A field study was conducted to compare four satchels designed for the purposes of manually carrying and delivering mail. The satchels differed primarily in the presence/absence of a waist belt, the number and design of the shoulder strap(s) and the number of pouches. The evaluation consisted of questionnaires and interviews of slightly more than 300 letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service. The questionnaires focused on 10 main areas of interest; ease of adjustability and handling, comfort, suitability and durability of materials, anthropometric applications, impact on other activities, ease of motion in retrieving mail, ease of motion in carrying the satchel, versatility of use in diverse climates, protection of mail from damage due to rain and snow, and defense against dog attacks. The primary conclusion was that the satchel with two shoulder straps and two pouches, which results in more symmetric loading than the other satchels, is the most desirable of the satchels tested. However, there are problems with the satchel that need to be addressed, such as concerns about the use of the satchel for defense from dog attacks. Keywords: musculoskeletal disorders, mail carriage, satchel design

INTRODUCTION More than a decade ago, Flathers, Giffen, and Rockwell (1982) discussed the paucity of data available on pilot decision making. 'Though pilot judgment has long been recognized as an […], Tactical decision making in the air combat environment requires the rapid processing of large amounts of data in a complex and unpredictable environment. To investigate decision making in this domain, we conducted a study in which 10 experienced fighter pilots provided tactical decisions and performed a target replacement task on a tactical situation display showing a wide variety of tactical situations based on the de Groot memory paradigm. Results were analyzed to determine features related to pilot attention distribution in processing tactical situation displays and their correspondence to tactical decision making. Evidence is provided for the effect of target quantity, target location, and overall target density distribution on decision making and attention. In addition, substantial variation in decision making was found between participants. Systematic biases in attention were also discovered which have implications for decision making in combat situations. Evidence of chunking in processing the displays was also explored. Results indicate that although pilots appeared to chunk targets in a manner similar to experts studied in other fields, the criterion used for determining chunking in these studies may not be valid.

INTRODUCTION The out-of-the-loop performance problem has been widely documented as a potential negative consequence of automation (Billings, 1991; Moray, 1986; Wickens, 1992; Wiener and Curry, 1980). System operators working with […], The out-of-the-loop performance problem, a major potential consequence of automation, leaves operators of automated systems handicapped in their ability to take over manual operations in the event of automation failure. This is attributed to a possible loss of skills and of situation awareness (SA) arising from vigilance and complacency problems, a shift from active to passive information processing, and change in feedback provided to the operator. We studied the automation of a navigation task using an expert system and demonstrated that low SA corresponded with out-of-the-loop performance decrements in decision time following a failure of the expert system. Level of operator control in interacting with automation is a major factor in moderating this loss of SA. Results indicated that the shift from active to passive processing was most likely responsible for decreased SA under automated conditions.

Methodologies for the empirical measurement of situation awareness are reviewed, including a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each method and the potential limitations of the measures from a theoretical and practical viewpoint. Two studies are presented that investigate questions of validity and intrusiveness regarding a query-based technique. This technique requires that a simulation of the operational tasks be momentarily interrupted in order to query operators on their situation awareness. The results of the two studies indicate that the query technique is not intrusive on normal subject behavior during the trial and does not suffer from limitations of human memory, which provides an indication of empirical validity. The results of other validity studies regarding the technique are discussed along with recommendations for its use in measuring situation awareness in varied settings.

This paper presents a theoretical model of situation awareness based on its role in dynamic human decision making in a variety of domains. Situation awareness is presented as a predominant concern in system operation, based on a descriptive view of decision making. The relationship between situation awareness and numerous individual and environmental factors is explored. Among these factors, attention and working memory are presented as critical factors limiting operators from acquiring and interpreting information from the environment to form situation awareness, and mental models and goal-directed behavior are hypothesized as important mechanisms for overcoming these limits. The impact of design features, workload, stress, system complexity, and automation on operator situation awareness is addressed, and a taxonomy of errors in situation awareness is introduced, based on the model presented. The model is used to generate design implications for enhancing operator situation awareness and future directions for situation awareness research.