Written by Source: Mica Endsley on LinkedIn
The scientist and theorist behind the theory of situation awareness, Mica Endsley recently shared new research on the links between situation awareness and workload.
Situation awareness (SA) and workload have both received considerable attention over the past several decades. Little research has investigated the relationship between these two constructs however. This study examined the relationship between workload and SA in a task involving operation of unmanned vehicles performing an inspection task. An inverse correlation between SA and workload was found, with SA decreasing by approximately 20% as workload increased. Unexpectedly, considerable differences in this relationship across individuals were found, however, with 50% of participants showing a correlation between SA and only one workload measure (subjective or secondary task) and 30% showing no correlation between SA and workload on either measure.
Possible reasons why workload and situation awareness are not always correlated are discussed, as well as potential reasons for individual differences leading to dissociations across the two constructs.
Full access to this scientific paper is not free. For the link to the abstract and summary CLICK HERE