Mental models and situation awareness in air traffic control

Air traffic controllers report that they form a mental picture of aircraft in airspace to assist in their work. In this study, the relationship of the picture to the concepts of mental models and situation awareness (SA) is discussed. A definition of SA is proposed that suggests it is the transient contents of awareness, as structured and supported by an underlying mental model. Research on SA in air traffic control is reviewed, and it appears that insufficient work has been done to demonstrate the importance of SA for successful task performance. An experiment with air traffic control trainees is described that relates their recall of basic aircraft data during a simulation to their scores in a final exam. The results showed that students prioritized aircraft information. Those who had accurate recall of aircraft altitude and heading had better outcomes. It is suggested that trainees, in retaining information about aircraft altitude and direction of flight, maintain a minimum but adequate set of data to help anticipate impending aircraft conflicts. It is recommended that further SA research be conducted to determine its salient components for a given task.