I__. - International Military Testing Association

To ensure an accurate knowledge of the actual situation at
the time of SA assessment, a set of battlefield situations,
vignettes, were developed in which all the informational elements
pertaining to the situation were prespecified and prerecorded.
Prespecification ensured standardization of situation
determinants.
Prerecorded materials for the vignettes included simulationbased
files designating commander and friendly unit locations,
operational overlays to be displayed on the commander's Command
and Control Display (CCD), and message sets to be received on his
CCD during the vignette which would provide updates on his
battlefield situation.
At the start of each vignette, the
commander was provided a map and map board with acetate
operational and note overlays, and a brief description of the
battlefield situation leading up to the vignette.
The tactical situation for the vignette placed the commander
in his tank simulator occupying a stationary defensive battle
position (BP) for a delay-in-sector mission. The time frame for
the vignette began after the postulated successful delay of
initial enemy elements by his unit. The vignette was terminated
prior to his unit's displacement to a subsequent BP.
Immediately after a lo-minute message reception and
processing phase, the commander was escorted out of his simulator
to an adjacent workstation. He retained the map and map board
used while receiving messages, but the operational and note
overlays were replaced with another acetate sheet depicting only
his own BP and the BPS of the adjacent companies. The commander
was given one version of both the plotting and 'Iseeing"
questionnaires, described in the following section, and lominutes
to record his answers. For each vignette, one
questionnaire pertained to the current situation and the other to
the future situation in a counterbalanced sequence across the
series of vignettes.
SA Instruments
The primary goals in the development of the situational
measures for this effort were (a) to develop a set of items that
addressed each of the primary levels of SA for small unit ground
commanders, and (b) to develop a response format that supported
objective scoring of a commander's SA responses.
Perception: Plotting
To capture commander's perception of the situation, a
situational awareness form was developed which required
commanders to plot on a military map the locations of reported
enemy units, friendly units, and key control measures. The
location data selected for these items were based on SME's
176
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