Characterisation of mental models in a virtual reality-based multitasking scenario using measures of situation awareness

摘要

The objective of this study was to assess an empirical approach to thencharacterisation of mental models in a multitasking scenario. A virtual realityntask was used, in which participants were required to attend to and detectnmultiple types of perceptual events occurring randomly in time while carrying onnsteady physical activity (walking on a treadmill). Based on a cognitive tasknanalysis, different forms of mental models for performing the task werenhypothesised. Responses to situation awareness (SA) probes delivered duringnexperiment trials, mental workload ratings and task performance measures werencollected and compared with response patterns expected for specific mental modelntypes. Results demonstrated utility of categorical SA responses for identifyingndifferent mental model types. However, in the multitasking scenario, the processnof developing ‘good’ SA was significantly influenced by the physical and cognitiventask demands and the progressive development of accurate isomorphic mentalnmodels of event distributions appeared to be restricted by this. Possiblenapplications of the results of this study include the development of trainingnprogrammes for mobile, visual inspection tasks, such as airport roving securitynpatrols, towards accurate mental model development and promoting detection ofncritical events.