Rethinking security in the days of Covid to discover non-technical skills

Abstract

One of the basic non-technical skills is situation awareness, which Endsley defines as the “perception of the elements of the environment present within a period of time and a certain space, the understanding of their meaning and the projection of their status in the immediate future “. The prerequisite is continuous monitoring of the environment.
Loss of situational awareness has been recognized as the leading cause of aviation accidents particularly those involving highly automated aircraft.
Endsley proposes a differentiation of situation awareness on the basis of three levels:
1. Collection of information;
2. Interpretation of the information;
3. Anticipation of future states.
In the collection of information there may be thorns such as the unavailability of data or difficult to perceive, the failure in the analysis or observation of the data or a bad interpretation of the latter. In the second and third levels, there may be a lack, a lack or misuse of mental models, an overestimation in conditions of lack of information, or a loss of memory.
The perception of risk is to be understood as the ability to identify a source of danger as soon as possible. It is a personal process; we decide to face or avoid the risk situation in a subjective way.
This process conditions actions, behaviors, evaluations, choices about an entity or a potentially dangerous situation.
The subjective perception of risk is not linear and is not directly proportional to the increase in the dangers; it is subject to influences and distortions and is linked to psychological, cultural and social aspects.