Situation Awareness: A Validation Study and Investigation of Individual Differences

Author(s):  
Leo J. Gugerty ◽  
William C. Tirre

The first experiment found that varying the rate of road hazards in a personal-computer-based driving simulator had no effect on subjects' situation awareness, as measured in the simulator. Thus, setting a high rate of hazards does not distort subjects' situation awareness. In the second experiment, the situation awareness test was found to predict driving performance in a realistic simulator. Individual differences in situation awareness were correlated with working memory and psychomotor abilities.

Author(s):  
Alejandro A. Arca ◽  
Kaitlin M. Stanford ◽  
Mustapha Mouloua

The current study was designed to empirically examine the effects of individual differences in attention and memory deficits on driver distraction. Forty-eight participants consisting of 37 non-ADHD and 11 ADHD drivers were tested in a medium fidelity GE-ISIM driving simulator. All participants took part in a series of simulated driving scenarios involving both high and low traffic conditions in conjunction with completing a 20-Questions task either by text- message or phone-call. Measures of UFOV, simulated driving, heart rate variability, and subjective (NASA TLX) workload performance were recorded for each of the experimental tasks. It was hypothesized that ADHD diagnosis, type of cellular distraction, and traffic density would affect driving performance as measured by driving performance, workload assessment, and physiological measures. Preliminary results indicated that ADHD diagnosis, type of cellular distraction, and traffic density affected the performance of the secondary task. These results provide further evidence for the deleterious effects of cellphone use on driver distraction, especially for drivers who are diagnosed with attention-deficit and memory capacity deficits. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research are also presented.


1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Mayer

Multimedia explanations are communications using words and pictures to explain how something works, including animation and narration in computer-based environments or text and illustrations in book-based environments. A cognitive theory of multimedia learning reveals a concurrence requirement for meaningful learning, in which corresponding verbal and pictorial representations must be held in working memory at the same time. Based on a theory-based research program, I propose five design principles: multimedia principle, to use words and pictures rather than words alone; contiguity principle, to place words close to corresponding pictures on a page or to present narration concurrently with corresponding animation; coherence principle, to minimize extraneous words, pictures, and sounds; modality principle, to present words as speech rather than as on-screen text; and individual differences principle, to use these design principles particularly for low-experience rather than high-experience learners and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners. Multimedia messages offer great potential for improving the effectiveness of communication, but only to the extent that their design is based on theory and research.


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