Neurologically Inspired Computational Cognitive Modeling of Situation Awareness

How information processes in the human brain relate to action formation is an interesting research question and with the latest development of brain imaging and recording techniques more and more interesting insights have been uncovered. In this paper a cognitive model is scrutinized which is based on cognitive, affective, and behavioural science evidences for situation awareness. Situation awareness has been recognized as an important phenomenon in almost all domains where safety is of highest importance and complex decision making is inevitable. This paper discusses analysis, modelling and simulation of three scenarios in the aviation domain where poor situation awareness plays a main role, and which have been explained by Endsley according to her three level situation awareness model. The computational model presented in this paper is driven by the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processes in action formation together with processes and states such as: perception, attention, intention, desires, feeling, action preparation, ownership, and communication. This type of cognitively and neurologically inspired computational models provide new directions for the artificial intelligence community to develop systems that are more aligning with realistic human mental processes and for designers of interfaces of complex systems. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.