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We conducted an experiment to investigate the influences of interleaved versus blocked presentation of disparate verbal exemplars on the induction of category concepts. The practice schedules of four experimental groups were juxtaposed such that sets of exemplar-category associations were either solved in succession (i.e., blocked), systematically intermixed (i.e., interleaved), or presented with an incremental transition from blocked to interleaved practice. Counter to current trends in the literature, in which interleaving alone has been facilitative of induction in some tasks, we found that participants whose initial exposure to the category exemplars involved blocked presentation performed better in both implicit and explicit tests of concept learning. The results are discussed with respect to the impacts of task type, task difficulty, and exemplar relatedness on induction.

Situational awareness has received considerable attention in recent years and significant theoretical advances have been made. The advances to date can be categorised in three main schools of thought: psychological, engineering and systems ergonomics schools. We use the perspectives of the three schools to analyse the descent and approach of a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series described by Hutchins (1995a). We discuss the theoretical contributions of the three schools to the understanding of SA and apply these to the analysis of the MD-80"s descent and approach. Finally, we discuss how the different views advocated by the three schools give rise to different approaches to support SA. We argue that while the psychological and engineering approaches each give valuable insight into the phenomenon neither give a complete explanation of SA. We therefore dispute that only the systems ergonomics perspective, in combining the individual, artefacts in the environment and interaction between these, offer a full explanation.

The maritime industry is increasingly becoming dependent on dynamic positioning (DP) systems for automated vessel station keeping. This study aimed to reveal characteristics of DP operators' situation awareness (SA) and decision-making during critical incidents. Information from a total of 24 critical incidents was collected from 13 experienced DP using the critical decision method. The results indicate that in 10 incidents, the DP operators were unable to identify the base events (e.g. did not form level 1 SA) but were able to identify the problem (e.g. understand the situation; e.g. form level 2 SA). These findings indicate that the establishment of high-level SA may happen even without low-level SA. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the development of SA and the recovery of critical incidents during complex maritime operations.

This article is themed around macro and systems Ergonomics, and examines the effects of command and control structures. Despite some differences in behaviour and measures of agility, when given the freedom to do so, participants organised themselves into a small world network. This network type has important and interesting implications for the Ergonomics design of teams and organisations.

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