Physiological measurement of situation awareness: a study of the validity of EEG and fNIRS during performance and automation monitoring in a complex task

SA is critical in various domains. SA measures (e.g., Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT)) require simulation freezes, limiting use in real-world settings. Objective physiological measures offer alternatives for SA monitoring without interrupting performance. fNIRS data was collected from 24 participants, and EEG from 29 participants (18 common in both datasets) while they completed three difficulty levels of the multi-attribute task battery (MATB) and a vigilance condition. Objective SA (SAGAT) and subjective workload (NASA-TLX) were collected from all participants. EEG Engagement Index significantly predicted SA even after accounting for workload, task difficulty, task performance, and subject random effects, indicating its ability to measure SA directly. fNIRS did not correlate with SA. SA scores in vigilance conditions were approximately half that of active performance. EEG measures differentiated between active performance and vigilance with 76% accuracy. EEG shows promise for measuring SA independently from workload, offering practical applications in high-stakes fields.