Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the influence of different attention allocation strategies under workloads on Situation Awareness (SA). 22 participants are recruited to conduct the 3 attention allocation strategies (equal allocation, primary and secondary allocation, and multilevel allocation)×2 mental workloads (low workload and high workload) two-factor within-subject design tasks. Dependent variables include Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technology (SAGAT), performance measures, eye movement measures, and electroencephalograph (EEG) measures. Statistical results show that under different workloads, compared with the primary and secondary allocation and the multilevel allocation, the equal allocation has significantly lower SAGAT scores, lower accuracy of performance, and higher Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI). Under high workload, compared with the multilevel allocation, the primary and secondary allocation has significantly higher SAGAT scores, shorter response time of performance, and lower NNI. Third, the SAGAT score has lower correlations to mean fixation time, NNI, θ relative power, and α relative power. The above outcomes could draw three conclusions. First of all, under different workloads, the equal attention allocation strategy may result in dispersed attention of the operator, which will then induce a worse performance and lower SA. What’s more, under high workload, compared to the multilevel attention allocation strategy, the primary and secondary attention allocation strategy is beneficial for the operator to extract key information and to maintain a better SA, but remain the risk of loss of SA. Finally, the mean fixation time and the NNI of eye movement, as well as the θ and α of EEG measures have potentials to measure SA.

Key words: situation awareness, attention allocation, mental workload, SAGAT, eye movement, electroencephalograph