A Real Time Probe Technique for Empirical Research by Field Study

摘要

It is very difficult to measure the situation awareness (SA) of participants in real-world activities 1, but situation awareness is vital to many experts, such as the aviators who fly helicopters. This paper describes applications of the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) to visual flight procedures for helicopter pilots. The experiment presented a safe aviation scenario based on normalized experience design approach and continuous SA Queries. The research was carried out in a government helicopter equipped with internal recording devices. The test subjects were pilots. A pilot run was executed first and then the actual experiments were implemented. The experimenter collected a set of data for analysis. This study established a controlled series of evaluations for 8 helicopter pilots; each pilot's SA was measured over a series of flights by the Situation Awareness Rating Technique (SART). Past research on similar topics has relied heavily on simulations, but we have discovered that the real-time probe method of SPAM can also be applied to pilots' measurable performance levels on real-world tasks. Relationships between subjective and objective measurements can be inferred from experimental analysis. We discovered that most of the pilots, who correctly responded to many questions, had comparatively low latencies in response time. Among SPAM measuring the quantity of correct responses for SA3 was related to the SART combined score as well as to the SART D score. From SPAM measurements of the latency response times, results showed that SA1 and SA2 were related to the SART combined score, and SA2 was related to the SART D score. In order to execute the experiment smoothly, the queries must avoid overspecialization, and the pilots must understand the queries completely. When this probe technique is properly executed, pilots can quickly and easily respond to questions as if using a radio, it is very easy directly to measure comparative data of situational alertness. However, it is hard to judge the strengths and weaknesses of a pilot's SA without comparisons with other approaches such as SART. Pilots are completely accustomed to the practice of standard operating procedures during daily routine work. The experimental data indicates very small differences in alertness levels. This system of measurement is useful for professionals and experts engaged in high-risk tasks.