The concept of situation awareness (SA) was developed in the aviation community in World War One, when a small number of pilots were responsible for shooting down a large number of enemy aircraft. These pilots were thought to have developed, through their flying experience, a kind of "sixth sense". A later study suggested that the decisive tactical advantage achieved by superior fighter pilots during four hundred air-to-air simulator engagements was attributable to their heightened SA. Today the aviation community refers to pilots "flying ahead of the aircraft". Interest in SA has increased in recent years, particularly where humans have to control or intervene in complex dynamic processes. The goal is not only to assess an individual's or a team's SA but also to find ways of enhancing it. The most frequently cited definition of SA defines it as "the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future." Others have argued that there is no point in trying to define SA because what a person has to be aware of will vary so much from one situation to the next. Our perspective is that achieving SA should be viewed as an important task and as separate from subsequent decision making and performance. It is important that a plant operator or control room team is able to achieve the necessary level of SA before deciding what should be done and then taking the necessary actions.
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