Applying measurement to complementary situation awareness

Abstract

As networks in complex domains such as cyber security increasingly become distributed, with multiple human and automated agents working together to complete team goals, capturing situation awareness (SA) becomes more difficult.Often, SA is defined and measured as individual SA (the knowledge held by an individual, such as a system administrator) or as shared SA (the knowledge held in common by multiple individuals). For these two types, ideal and actual SA have been measured using goal-oriented task analysis and knowledge specific queries, respectively. We argue that measurements of SA could fill a gap by additionally measuring complementary SA (the knowledge elements held separately by individuals). In the current paper, we suggest how measures for individual SA can be applied to the measurement of the complementary component of SA. We adapt a technique that involves completing a goal oriented task analysis for a given context and then querying human operators about specific knowledge elements. This adaption allows for the quantification of goal-oriented knowledge elements that are held by team members but are not shared. This technique for quantifying team SA that is complementary as well as shared can be applied to assess trainees and to inform future training programs. Understanding and measuring multiple facets of SA will help improve efficiency and security in distributed teams in cyber security. First, we review the literature on existing measurement techniques for SA, then we outline how measurement can be applied to complementary SA. Lastly, we discuss some applications of measuring complementary SA.