ABSTRACT
Dynamic situations are found in those work settings where the human operator partly controls a technical or physical process which has its own dynamics and which is most of the time also controlled by automatic machines (Hoc et al. 1995). In such situations, the operator’s tasks can vary from supervision (high automation and normal operation) to control (low automation and incident recovery) and are currently qualified as supervisory control (Sheridan 1992). Dynamic is used in contrast with static. A static situation does not change unless the operator acts on it (e.g. using a text editor). Various examples of dynamic situations can be found in industry (nuclear power plants, refineries, iron and steel industry, manufacturing, etc.), mobile driving (car, aircraft, or ship), traffic control (air or car traffic control), crisis management (fire-fighting or disaster management) or medicine (anesthesiology, but also patient management by general practitioners).
