Situation awareness measures for simulated submarine track management

Area of Science:

• Human Factors
• Cognitive Psychology
• Naval Operations

Background:

• Submarine track managers rely on complex displays for contact localization and tracking.
• Accurate measurement of situation awareness (SA) is vital for optimizing submarine display interfaces and training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) and Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) predict performance in a simulated submarine track management task.
• To assess the disruptive impact of SPAM and SAGAT on performance and workload.

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a simulated submarine track management task using tactical and sonar displays.
• Situation awareness was assessed using SPAM and SAGAT during scenarios.
• Workload and subjective SA were measured using NASA-TLX and Situation Awareness Rating Technique post-scenario.

Main Results:

• Both SPAM and SAGAT predicted unique variance in track management performance, controlling for workload.
• SA for past information was a stronger predictor than SA for current/future information.
• SAGAT predicted performance across all tasks but marginally increased subjective workload without performance decrement.

Conclusions:

• SPAM, SAGAT, and NASA-TLX effectively predict unique variance in submarine track management performance.
• SAGAT's marginal increase in workload did not negatively impact performance.
• SPAM offers a non-disruptive alternative to SAGAT, but its predictive power across all tasks requires further investigation.