TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of working memory in levels of situation awareness
AU - Gutzwiller, Robert S.
AU - Clegg, Benjamin A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The data reported here come from a thesis conducted by Robert S. Gutzwiller at Colorado State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of science. This research was supported in part by Army Research Office Grant W911NF-05-1-0153 (PI: Alice Healy). The authors would especially like to thank Vanessa Loaiza for her assistance with the implementation of the working memory component of this research. We also thank Coty Gonzalez and two anonymous reviewers for their many insightful comments on the previous version of this manuscript.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - Situation awareness (SA) brings together theories in cognition to examine what an operator perceives, understands and predicts about their environment. Previous characterization of working memory (WM) influence in levels of awareness however is sparse and has several shortcomings, including how both WM and SA have been measured. In the current experiment, a factor analytic approach to WM was adopted based on performance on three different WM tasks. These factor scores were then related to SA which was measured over two forms of scenarios in a complex dynamic decision-making task. In one scenario, Level 1 SA was assessed, and the other assessed Level 3 processes implicitly. Findings from 99 participants indicate WM was unrelated to Level 1, but was related to Level 3 SA with the relationship strengthening with increasing task experience. These results refine and contribute to ongoing theory in the context of SA and dynamic task performance, and provide future directives to individual differences research in human factors.
AB - Situation awareness (SA) brings together theories in cognition to examine what an operator perceives, understands and predicts about their environment. Previous characterization of working memory (WM) influence in levels of awareness however is sparse and has several shortcomings, including how both WM and SA have been measured. In the current experiment, a factor analytic approach to WM was adopted based on performance on three different WM tasks. These factor scores were then related to SA which was measured over two forms of scenarios in a complex dynamic decision-making task. In one scenario, Level 1 SA was assessed, and the other assessed Level 3 processes implicitly. Findings from 99 participants indicate WM was unrelated to Level 1, but was related to Level 3 SA with the relationship strengthening with increasing task experience. These results refine and contribute to ongoing theory in the context of SA and dynamic task performance, and provide future directives to individual differences research in human factors.
KW - Implicit measures
KW - Individual differences
KW - Situation awareness
KW - Working memory
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U2 - 10.1177/1555343412451749
DO - 10.1177/1555343412451749
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84883350037
VL - 7
SP - 141
EP - 154
JO - Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making
JF - Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making
SN - 1555-3434
IS - 2
ER -