Understanding the Shared Situation Awareness Process: A Communication Framework for Improved Team Performance

Situation awareness (SA) has been defined as the extent to which a person receives and processes real world stimuli in order to form a mental model of a given situation. This stimuli is continuously interpreted to form a conception of what is going on around us. Shared situation awareness (SSA) is defined as the overlap in individual situation awareness among two or more people at a given moment in time and space. In small group settings high-level SSA occurs when this overlap is robust, accurate and ongoing. This construct is a crucial success factor for small groups engaged in complex tasks. Previous research has focused on the results of groups that have high degrees of SSA. Less attention has been given to the process of SSA formation and maintenance. This paper refocuses existing theories to develop a communication process designed to improve SSA in task-oriented groups. A training regimen to acquire key skills is also developed and tested. The end goal was to develop a clear understanding of the communication behaviors that impact SSA, both positively and negatively. A simulated rescue exercise, developed for this study, was used to test the communication training.