An operator's understanding of a threatening event within a system was investigated to determine if understanding was predictive of successful operation. Using the domain of driving, we hypothesized that participants who performed higher on a written measure of situational judgment would also attend to and categorize threats better in a card-sort activity. Results indicated that participants who were able to classify threats in a guided card sort performed better on the situational judgment test than those who classified threats poorly. The results suggest that a relationship exists between conceptual understanding of threats in a system and safer operation.
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