“62% of errors went undetected by the crew and this reduced dramatically when the other guy was nominated to monitor rather than assist.”
This should not be surprising, particularly as situation awareness involves each crewmember knowing all of the crew’s duties and the need for an individual to seek information about the aircraft and the other crew members. Therefore improved monitoring is another way of saying situation awareness improved because individuals more clearly understood their role, - the ‘what’ and ‘why’ crew should look for something, ‘where’ to find the information, and its ‘relative importance’. This should be part of a wider scanning process that might detect errors by having a better understanding the situation.
Thus, I believe that the US study mainly detected failures in SA, which are often cited in accident reports.
Monitoring is one means of improving self and crew SA; monitoring is improved by scanning.
Situational Awareness Training.