Understanding the shared situation awareness process: A communication framework for improved team performance

Situation awareness has been defined as the extent to which a person receives and processes real world stimuli in order to form a mental model of a given situation that accurately reflects reality. This mental model also consists of an individual interpretive element. These two assessments combine to form an individual's conception of what is going on around him or her. Shared situation awareness (SSA) in this conception is defined as the overlap in individual situation awareness (SA) across a population at a given moment in time and space. High level SSA occurs when this overlap is robust, accurate, ongoing, and includes the necessary information for each individual person to perform his/her part in the overall group effort. This is crucial for success for small groups engaged in complex tasks. Most previous research focused on the results that are obtained when there is a high degree of SSA. Less attention has been given to the process of SSA formation and maintenance. This dissertation refocuses existing theories to develop a communication process designed to improve SSA in task-oriented groups. A training regimen to acquire key skills is also developed and tested. The end goal is to develop a clear understanding of the communication behaviors that impact SSA, both positively and negatively. A simulated POW rescue exercise, developed for this study, was used to test the communication training. The following hypotheses were addressed: (H1) Groups that implement good communication practices training will be more likely than untrained groups to form high levels of SSA, (H2) Groups that form high levels of SSA will perform better than untrained groups. The results suggested support for both hypotheses.