The “tunnel vision” effect: Structuring of attention and use of digital technologies in Emergency Operation Centers

Abstract

Preliminary fieldwork conducted in three Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) in Canada and two in the United States has highlighted the relevance of a phenomenon that is affecting negatively collaborative work and shared situational awareness at EOCs. Namely, the observation that, in technologically dense EOCs, emergency management staff are affected by what emergency managers call “deep immersion” or “tunnel vision.” This phenomenon is characterized by channelized attention to individual interactions with computer-based systems, simultaneous disengagement from cooperative lines of work, and reduction in the use of alternative informational resources. Two consequences of this phenomenon are: reduced awareness of the alignment of other actors' actions with the ongoing situation, and impaired ability to anticipate individual actions that align timely and relevantly with collective ones. In this article, we provide a conceptual and methodological framework to structure the study of this phenomenon in EOCs and some preliminary findings.