Kip Smith

SITUATION AWARENESS IS ADAPTIVE, EXTERNALLY DIRECTED CONSCIOUSNESS

We define situation awareness (SA) as adaptive, externally directed consciousness. This definition dispels the artificial and contentious division evident in the literature, according to which SA is either exclusively knowledge or exclusively process. This misdirected rivalry has more to do with general perspectives on the study of human behavior than with SA itself. Through defining SA as an aspect of consciousness, we hope to clarify two key issues. (1) The source of goals with respect to SA is a normative arbiter in the task environment; that is, the behavior that SA generates must be directed at an external goal. (2) SA is the invariant at the core of the agents perception-action cycle that supports skilled performance; that is, relationships among factors or dimensions in the environment determine what the agent must know and do to achieve the goals specified by the external arbiter. We introduce a construct we call the risk space to represent the invariant relations in the environment that enable the agent to adapt to novel situations and to attain prespecified goals. We articulate this concept of a risk space through use of a specific example in commercial aircraft operations. The risk space structures information about the physical airspace in a manner that captures the momentary knowledge that drives action and that satisfies the goals and performance criteria for safe and efficient flight. We note that the risk space may be generalized to many different means of navigation.

Neuronal Substrates for Choice Under Ambiguity, Risk, Gains, and Losses

Economic forces shape the behavior of individuals and institutions. Forces affecting individual behavior are attitudes about payoffs (gains and losses) and beliefs about outcomes (risk and ambiguity). Under risk, the likelihoods of alternative outcomes are fully known. Under ambiguity, these likelihoods are unknown. In our experiment, payoffs and outcomes were manipulated independently during a classical choice task as brain activity was measured with positron emission tomography (PET). Here, we show that attitudes about payoffs and beliefs about the likelihood of outcomes exhibit interaction effects both behaviorally and neurally. Participants are risk averse in gains and risk-seeking in losses; they are ambiguity-seeking in neither gains nor losses. Two neural substrates for choice surfaced in the interaction between attitudes and beliefs: a dorsomedial neocortical system and a ventromedial system. This finding reveals that the brain does not honor a prevalent assumption of economics--the independence of the evaluations of payoffs and outcomes. The demonstration of a relationship between brain activity and observed economic choice attests to the feasibility of a neuroeconomic decision science.

The impact of the certainty context on the process of choice

In this study we examine how the introduction of a reference lottery with nonrandom outcomes alters the way in which choices among pairs of lotteries are made, even if it does not alter the choices. We use different domains (some of the lotteries produce gains, other losses) and different contexts (one member of the pair, the reference lottery, may be either risky or certain). In our experiment, the change from gain to loss domain affects choices: subjects are risk averse in the gain domain, but not in the loss domain. On the contrary, the context effect of the certain lottery does not affect choices. However, the introduction of the certainty reference lottery affects two behavioral variables, response time and brain activation, in a dramatic way. This result suggests that the certainty lottery promotes a different process through which preferences are revealed, even if the differences among lotteries may not be large enough to induce different choices.

Economics and emotion: Institutions matter

Abstract In two different types of institutions, English and Dutch auctions, we collect heart rate data, a proxy for emotion, to test hypotheses based on findings in neural science about the effect of emotion on economic behavior. We first demonstrate that recording heart rates does not distort prices in these auctions. Next we ask if knowledge of the intensity of a participants emotional state improves our ability to predict price setting behavior beyond predictions of price based on usual economic variables. Our answer is that “institutions matter.” In the Dutch (English) auctions we find (no) evidence that knowledge of emotional intensity affects our ability to predict price setting behavior. We then entertain the proposition that the cardiac system is an information system that processes economic events. We are able to show that this hypothesis is consistent with our observations and furthermore that the processes differ across institutions.

Situation awareness: some remaining questions

Theories of situation awareness must grapple with questions of consciousness raised by objectivism, normativism and elementarism. This short essay frames these questions for the consideration of researchers working on situation awareness. Their basis in ancient as well as recent debates on ontology and their relevance to applications of situation awareness are discussed.

AN INDEX OF DYNAMIC DENSITY

The risk of a collision between aircraft is rising as the density of commercial air traffic increases. This trend, together with the overwhelming need to upgrade the National Airspace System, has motivated the Federal Aviation Administration to sponsor the development of metrics to evaluate “dynamic density”—a proxy for the likelihood of collision risk. Here we propose and evaluate a mathematical index of dynamic density, D, that describes collision risk. Although our domain of investigation is aviation, the logic of D is applicable whenever objects move in limited spaces. A series of sensitivity analyses illustrate how D responds to frequently encountered air traffic conflict situations. We illustrate a use of D that characterizes pilot performance and efficiency in experimental simulations of free flight and suggest other human factors applications. This research could be applied immediately by the traffic management units of en-route air traffic control centers to reformulate the criterion for the critical capacity of sectors.

A case study of information and communication technology in emergency management training

This paper addresses the roles of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in training for effective emergency management and inter-organisational coordination. Collocation can encourage the ...

A Dynamic Conflict Probe and Index of Collision Risk

We present a mathematical index of colllision risk and propose it as a candidate conflict probe for use in free flight. The index can be used to aid and measure ATC and pilot performance during simulated or real flight. The instantaneous value of the index is a relative (ordinal) measure of global situational risk. When the value of the index is graphed over time, conflicts can be easily identified and their severity estimated. Peak values indicate approximate times and degree of risk associated with the minimum separation of aircraft.

Pilot Actions during Traffic Situations in a Free-Flight Airspace Structure

One facet of the proposed restructuring of the National Airspace System currently generating much interest is called ‘Free Flight’. At the heart of the Free Flight system is an increased flexibility in pilot decision making and responsibility for the definition and maintenance of separation, of preferred routes and speeds, and the conduct of maneuvers in response to potential conflicts and other emergencies in the airspace. Here, we describe a simulation experiment where fifteen commercial pilots were presented with traffic conflict situations in the en route environment. Within the scenarios we manipulated density, type of conflict, and relative bearing of conflict aircraft. Pilots were required to navigate a simulated 757 aircraft to destination airport, avoiding all possible traffic conflicts. Their ability to maintain separation was the principle dependent measure. Results indicated that density and bearing did not appear to have any substantive effect on pilot response. However, overtaking conflicts produced a higher frequency of operational errors than crossing or converging conflicts. Further analysis of individual pilot responses revealed different strategies. Analysis of individual overtaking scenarios revealed patterns of pilot action associated with efficient and often creative conflict resolutions. An example of an inefficient conflict resolution was also identified.

An Hedonomic Evaluation of the Effect of Repeated System-Exposure on Pleasurable Human-System Experience

We report on two studies of the mere exposure effect on the occurrence of flow. Findings reveal that: (a) pleasurable human-system experience increased linearly with repeated exposure to the technology of interest; (b) an habituation effect of flow was mediated by day; (c) performance was positively correlated to flow. Suggestions for future research directions for Hedonomics include mitigating the habituation of flow effect by incorporating an adaptive hedonomic design to reduce the effect of boredom that comes with familiar stimuli an approach that enables the user to create a balance between typicality and novelty in order to allow for changing cultural norms and personal change over time.