Cognitive Load and Situation Awareness for Soldiers: Using an Auditory Detection Response Task

Abstract

We examined the cognitive load and situation awareness of tactical decision makers processing information with a battle management system. We presented information in visual and auditory form. To measure workload, we used an auditory detection response task (DRT). We found that DRT performance was worse with faster message presentation and with auditory presentation, indicating greater workload in those conditions. We also found that situation awareness was lower with faster presentation. However, we found that auditory presentation produced greater situation awareness than visual presentation. These results are partially consistent with results of a previous study (Hollands, Spivak, & Kramkowski, in press), but suggest that workload and situation awareness can sometimes diverge.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baddeley

A. D.

Lewis

Vallar

(1984). Exploring the articulatory loop. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychol-ogy A, 36, 233–52.

Bailey

B. P.

Iqbal

S. T.

(2008). Understanding changes in mental workload during execution of goal-directed tasks and its application for interruption management. ACM Transac-tions on Computer-Human Interaction, 14(4), 1–28.

Banbury

Tremblay

(Eds.). (2004). A cognitive approach to situation awareness: Theory and application. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

Broadbent

D. E.

(1957). A mechanical model for human attention and immediate memory. Psychological Review, 64, 205-215.

Endsley

M. R.

(1987). The application of human factors to the development of expert systems for advanced cockpits. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting (pp. 1388-1392). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

Endsley

M. R.

(1988). Design and evaluation for situation awareness enhancement. In Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting (pp. 97–101). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.

Endsley

M. R.

(1995). Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors, 37, 32–64.

Hart

S. G.

Staveland

L. E.

(1988). Development of NASATLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In Advances in psychology (Vol. 52, pp. 139–183). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Hawkins

(2018). Free special effects. Retrieved from https://www.freespecialeffects.co.uk

10.

Hollands

J. G.

Spivak

Kramkowski

E. W.

(in press). Cognitive load and situation awareness for soldiers: Effects of message presentation rate and sensory modality. Human Fac-tors.

11.

International Organization for Standardization. (2016). Road ve-hicles: Transport information and control systems— Detection-response task (DRT) for assessing selective attention in driving (ISO 17488:2016). Geneva: Author.

12.

Kahneman

(1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

13.

Moray

(Ed.). (1979). Mental workload: Its theory and meas-urement. New York, NY: Plenum.

14.

Parasuraman

Hancock

P. A.

(2001). Adaptive control of workload. In Hancock

P. A.

Desmond

P. E.

(Eds.), Stress, workload, and fatigue (pp. 305–320). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

15.

Strayer

D. L.

Turrill

Cooper

J. M.

Coleman

J. R.

Medei-ros-Ward

Biondi

(2015). Assessing cognitive distraction in the automobile. Human Factors, 57, 1300–1324.

16.

Tack

Nakaza

(2016). Cognitive task analysis of target engagements in a near peer scenario. Toronto, ON: DRDC Contract Report (Draft).

17.

Tapper

(2012). The outpost. New York: Little, Brown.

18.

Wickens

C. D.

(2008). Multiple resources and mental workload. Human Factors, 50, 449–455.