Individual differences in working memory affect situation awareness
Date
2011
Authors
Gutzwiller, Robert S., author
Clegg, Benjamin A., advisor
DeLosh, Edward, committee member
Hayne, Stephen, committee member
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Abstract
Situation awareness (SA) is a construct that brings together theories of attention, memory, and expertise in an empirical effort to showcase what awareness is and how it is acquired by operators. Endsley (1995a) defined SA in a way that includes many theoretical associations between awareness and specific memory and attention mechanisms. Work characterizing these relationships has been sparse, however, particularly with regard to the influence of working memory (WM) on SA in novices. An experiment was devised which principally investigated novice SA as a theorized function of WM across two distinct tasks; one in which operator attention and perception (Level 1 SA) was assessed, and one in which an operator's ability to respond to events in the future (Level 3 SA) was implicitly assessed. Factors analysis was used and resulting outcomes from three WM tasks loaded well onto one overall WM factor. Findings from 99 participants indicate that WM does have a correlative and predictive relationship with Level 3, but not Level 1 SA. Results reported here contribute to ongoing theory and experimental work in applied psychology with regard to SA and individual differences, showing WM influences awareness in novice performance even in the case where SA measures are not memory-reliant.
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Subject
individual differences
working memory
situation awareness