SITUATION AWARENESS IS ADAPTIVE, EXTERNALLY DIRECTED CONSCIOUSNESS

We define situation awareness (SA) as adaptive, externally directed co nsciousness. This definition dispels the artificial and contentious di vision evident in the literature, according to which SA is either excl usively knowledge or exclusively process. This misdirected rivalry has more to do with general perspectives on the study of human behavior t han with SA itself. Through defining SA as an aspect of consciousness, we hope to clarify two key issues. (1) The source of goals with respe ct 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) S A is the invariant at the core of the agent's perception-action cycle that supports skilled performance; that is, relationships among factor s or dimensions in the environment determine what the agent must know and do to achieve the goals specified by the external arbiter. We intr oduce a construct we call the risk space to represent the invariant re lations in the environment that enable the agent to adapt to novel sit uations and to attain prespecified goals. We articulate this concept o f a risk space through use of a specific example in commercial aircraf t operations. The risk space structures information about the physical airspace in a manner that captures the momentary knowledge that drive s action and that satisfies the goals and performance criteria for saf e and efficient flight. We note that the risk space may be generalized to many different means of navigation.