ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, situation awareness has been extensively studied in psychology as well as through the human-factors approach. Researchers try to model an operative and intuitive concept for aircraft pilots. Research is pulling away from a normative vision of situation awareness and is increasingly directed towards a dynamic and individual approach, where mechanisms rather than the product of mechanisms are described. The dynamic nature of situation awareness highlights the fact that it is not a discreet but a continuous process, in which maintaining and updating situation awareness is essential to conduct pilot activity. These mechanisms depend on determinants characterizing the situation. In order to develop appropriate human-factors recommendations in the fields of pilot training and systems design, it is essential to carefully study the relationship between mechanisms and determinants in specific situations.
