Abstract
We contrasted two methods for assessing situation awareness (SA) in a dynamic, fast-paced military domain, a high-level measure based on subjects' responses to global questions about a tactical situation and a detailed measure based on their answers to questions about specific elements of the situation. We hypothesized that the two measures would be correlated, and while they were initially, as a dynamic simulation progressed, the relationship between the two measures decreased. We also hypothesized that level of SA would be correlated over time, but the two approaches to the assessment of SA lead to different conclusions, with the high-level measure showing a significant correlation while the detailed measure was not correlated across the measurement periods. The internal consistency of the detailed measure also decreased over time, suggesting that SA becomes more fragmented as a dynamic situation develops, and calling into question the appropriateness of measuring SA as a unified concept.
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