Awareness of control room teams

Two studies investigated the awareness of nuclear control room teams. Study 1 analysed a sample of forty reported events in that industry. Four proximate causes of lack of SA were identified (lack of communication, attention, perception, and knowledge) and four types of SA requirement (concerning the actions of personnel, the status of plant/sub-system, the position of valves, and the value of critical variables). Study 2 utilised this information to design two simulated scenarios, with three SA points embedded in each, which were tackled by six control room teams. Awareness was assessed using a methodology involving concurrent observation by three raters of a team’s actions and verbalisations. Inter-team differences in awareness were found for five of the six points although no consistent pattern emerged concerning differences between teams, even when the same proximate cause was involved. These studies extend our understanding of SA in process control and suggest that both detailed design and relevant measurement are necessary to capture the task-specific nature of SA