Attention Allocation in Situation Awareness

Abstract

Subjects were given a “god's eye” view of an air battle involving seven aircraft: two were friendly, either one or three were hostile, and the rest were neutral. In one condition (Consistent FFN), which aircraft were friend, foe, or neutral was consistent throughout a trial. In another condition (Variable FFN), the identity of each aircraft changed randomly within a trial. In general, subjects' spatial awareness was best for enemy aircraft and worst for neutral aircraft. Increasing the number of enemy aircraft from one to three degraded spatial awareness for enemy aircraft in both FFN conditions. FFN awareness for was also affected. These results are interpreted in terms of a limited capacity model of attention and subjects' attentional priorities.