Measuring the auditory situation awareness re- quired for military operation

The term “situation awareness” is especially relevant to military personnel; knowledge and comprehension of relevant elements in the current environment are important for prediction of future events. Although the military often uses this term when promoting information technology, the ability of the end user to receive and process information is ultimately dependent on their basic sensory abilities. Those concerned with the hearing of warfighters often struggle with the conflicting need to protect hearing while enabling it. Current efforts include identification of the auditory capabilities required to successfully operate, optimizing application of communications and hearing protection technologies for those operational objectives and the provision of technological aids to overcome auditory challenges. To assess whether such communication aids are successful, it is necessary to demonstrate overall facilitation of operational activities. Standardized measures have been identified to characterize auditory sensitivity, protection from noise and communication ability. Additionally, a standard was recently developed for the measurement of auditory localization. However, there is still disagreement about how to predict the relationship of auditory ability to overall situation awareness and performance. Recently, researchers have attempted to demonstrate the impact of degraded hearing on operational performance. If communication is verbal, degradation of hearing increases errors and cognitive load. We will discuss this research, and efforts to develop operational measures of situation awareness for use in the evaluation of novel auditory situation awareness aids.