Decision Making
Decision Making
Definition
In aviation, decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from multiple alternatives.
Description
Decision-making generally has four components:
- Defining the problem
- Considering the options
- Selecting and implementing an option
- Reviewing the outcome.
Decision making is influenced by:
- Situational Awareness - a combination of availability of information and the ability of the decision maker to interpret the information (skills and professional knowledge)
- Experience - familiarity with similar, perhaps routine, situations.
- Social - social pressure, national and institutional culture.
- Situational limitations - Physiological & psychological pressures (stress, fatigue, hypoxia etc), time pressure
Related Articles
Further Reading
Flight Safety Foundation
CASA
- Safety Behaviours Toolkit - Resource Guide for pilots (pages 139-145)
EGAST
- Decision Making for General Aviation Pilots, EGAST Safety Promotion Leaflet, April 2011;
Others
- Fighting Pilot Fatigue, video by Boeing’s Fatigue Risk Management team in partnership with Delta airlines to portray the effects of fatigue on pilots. It describes technologies in the flight deck that can monitor and prevent fatigue-related events.
- FAA Advisory Circular (AC) AC 60-22 Aeronautical Decision Making
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