May I Interrupt? the Effect of SPAM Probe Questions on Air Traffic Controller Performance

The use of probe questions for measuring situation awareness is often regarded as being intrusive on operator performance and workload (Pierce, 2012). Moreover, the probe questions themselves may change the operator's situation awareness. However, the intrusive effects of probe questions can be diminished through optimized presentation and collection of responses (Bacon & Strybel, 2013). The present study analyzed data from a large sample of 54 student controllers to determine whether an optimized presentation method for administering Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) probe questions negatively impacted the students’ workload or performance. Results were consistent with prior research (e.g., Bacon & Strybel, 2013) showing that probe questions were not intrusive and could be used as a method for measuring SA in experimental studies.