Antecedents and outcome of situation awareness: a meta-analysis of presence and effect size

Situation awareness (SA) integrates real-time perception, comprehension and projection of environmental elements, enabling operators to anticipate hazards and coordinate effective responses, it is a core element of safety decision-making in complex systems. This meta-analysis synthesised 87 studies from 2000 to 2024 (265 effect sizes) and identified seven antecedent factors, one outcome (task performance) and six moderators. Results indicated that task type showed the strongest association with SA, with other antecedents exhibiting varying degrees of association with SA. SA was moderately positively associated with task performance. All six moderators accounted for a portion of the observed heterogeneity in the relationships between SA and its antecedents. These findings clarify conditional determinants of SA and offer empirically grounded guidance for interventions targeting individual capacity, task design and human-machine systems.