Part 1 (Decision Making and Situational Awareness) Chapter 3: Recognition-Primed Decision Making Process Flashcards
An effective method for making high-risk, high-consequences decisions. It is sometimes referred to as RPD or RPMD
Recognized primed decision making
Recognized primed decision making (RPD or RPMD) was 1st discovered by ________, a cognitive decision researcher. __________ was conducting a study on FF in the 1980’s when he was hired by the Army help improve battlefield decision making.
Gary Klein
Army had been training battlefield commanders to use traditional decision making because it was the ________ until Gary came along
only one that existed
Sometimes referred to as ___ _____ in the research community, means to observe the decision makers in their natural environments
going native
The birth of RPD came from -
Researchers knew the best way to understand the complexities and challenges of making decisions under stress on the battlefield would be to observe them in their natural environment. It was unsafe and impractical for researches to go into battle which lead Klein to find an environment that closely resembled the conditions found on the battleground. He decided ______ commanders were an ideal fit
fireground
______ commanders operate in a time-compressed, high-stakes, rapidly changing, and unpredictable environment
Fireground
The goal of Kleins associates was to observe and understand how fireground commanders used traditional decision making model to help the Army solve their battleground command challenges. Klein realized that firegorund commanders did not use traditional decision making process or did their decisions didn’t even fit the standard definition of decision which is
a choice between two or more alternatives
Experienced fireground commanders gathered a small amount of information quickly, processed what it meant, came up with a solution, and visualized an action plan to see if it would work. This is termed:
Mental Modeling
Klein found that fireground commanders if the ____ plan worked, commanders never gave alternatives a thought or compared them, scrapped the initial plan if it didnt work and developed a whole new plan,
1st
For commanders to successfully used RPDM, they must have a level of _____ to draw upon from a collection of experiences and trainings
expertise
A facet that separates many 1st responders decision environments from others is how dynamically changing the environment is, coupled with the compression of ___ and the need to make decision
time
Commanders must size up situations quickly, often less than a
minute
The author posed a question to hundreds of fireground commanders on how long it takes them to do their scene size up. The answer is nearly a universal seconds. When pressed for a number the range was typically __ to _ or as long as it took to do a 360
5-15
Expertise allows fireground commanders to conduct rapid size-ups of situations. ____ are able to are able to comprehend the meaning of cues and clues much quicker or even group them together
expert
In regards to negative cues and clues, the negative means
absent (but should be there)
____ commanders struggle because they lack experience and cannot size up a scene rapidly. They struggle to fit pieces to form the big picture. Their attention can be drawn away to what appears to be more important and miss small clues. They also miss negative clues
novice
Novice commanders who observe their experienced commanders quickly capturing information under stress and developing a plan and thinking they can do the same refers to
The novice disadvantage
distinct, identifiable, and measurable physical, mental, and emotional changes including increased BP, pulse, respirations, heart palpitations, profuse sweating, dry mouth, trembling, narrowing of attention and hyperawareness are common
physical reactions to stress
Stress triggers a reaction in the _____, a small pea-sized organ in the middle of your brain. The ___ sends out signals to other organs to release Adrenalin-to prepare your body for action, Glucose - to give you energy, Endorphins - the body’s naturally produced morphine to mask pain and is also a stimulant, and Cortisol- to help counter the effects of the adrenaline. These chemicals change the way you perform under stress.
Hypothalamus
The only hope to reducing stress is to reduce the number of chemicals being released in your body. This can be done by calming techniques like deep breathing which relaxed the hypothalamus. The more exposure you have to stressful events, the more likely you are to develop immunity. This describes avoiding the
chemical dump
The recruit FF going through basic training is likely to experience more stress than an experienced FF who has been under stress many times
true
Under stress, your body restricts blood supply from your ____ and ____ and redirect the to the organs and muscles that working extra hard under stress. Your may also lose urinary or bowel control
Kidneys and digestive
A hallmark quality of a good public safety responder is
making rapid decisions under stress
Intuition, triggered by stress can lead to the often-referenced intuitive ___ ____
gut feelings
The term often used to describe the physical response to stress is called the
Fight or Flight syndrome/response
Even though the two operate differently, the brain is compared to a computer. Your short term memory is like (___________) and your long term memory is the (__________)
random access memory -RAM
Hard Drive
The neuroscience term for short-term memory is ________. This holds the things you are thinking about in the current moment in time. It is easily overloaded. When this happens, your ability to make decisions slows or freezes.
working memory
In memory ______. You don’t have control of what you want to store or where it is stored in your brain. Research ahs proven that much of what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell are captured and stored in memory. Stimuli can trigger vivid recalls of experiences.
storage
Memory is not stored in one place, it can be stored in many places across your ____
cortex
_____ _____ has been suggested to only be accomplished by brain damage. However, brain cells die regularly and new ones are generated. The brain also deploys coping mechanisms for traumatic or stressful times in your life
memory loss
some factors that contribute to your ability to readily recall information are
regular and routine (nonspecial) events of daily life are not stored with the same prominence and are not as readily recallable
- how recent the experience
- significance you give to certain events in your life
When you are under stress, your brain searches through a collection of experiences trying to find a similar experience to help solve the problem which results in the intuitive _____
gut feeling
This unconscious knowledge resides in your subconscious. You cant explain how you know because the information is stored without your awareness to it. This results in the commander saying “ I don’t know how, I just knew”
Tacit Knowledge
Gary Kleins research group rode along with fireground commanders in
Cleveland, Ohio
Whether its one experience or a variety of experiences combined, your brain identifies the solution and creates a _______. This is what causes the intuitive gut feelings
pattern match
your brain is not infallible, therefore it is important to _______ and validate the decision as being a good one
seek out the facts
As a decision maker searches for additional facts to validate intuition, it can cause them to llok for the clues and cues that ONLY AFFIRM their intuition. In the process, clues and cues that refute their intuition may be dismissed or excused away. This phenomenon is known as
confirmation bias
The main that inspired the movie Rain Man
Kim Peak
What makes the knowledge ___ is where the knowledge is stored and how it is used subconsciously.
____ knowledge allows you to form subconscious pattern matches without awareness
Tacit Knowledge
Assembling the pieces of a ______ is alot like how the rain gathers and processes information in decision making. Clues and Cues (_______)are captured and processed (put together_
Jigsaw Puzzle, Puzzle Pieces
A good book on emotions in decision making is called Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain by Antonio R Damasio. This book chronicles the studies of a man Phineas Gage who suffered brain damage to the _______ _______ of his brain that controls his emotion. Phineas lead a pretty normal life other than he was unable to control emotional impulses, inability to problem solve, and maintaining attention
prefrontal cortex
Your brain stores memories in pieces. Your brain is efficient at taking these pieces and putting them together correctly, resulting in something meaningful. Individually, a piece may not mean much until it is coupled with other pieces. Then, and only then, is the meaning significant. This process is called
Chunking
Remember to look for facts to validate your feelings. When your are trying to validate your gut feelings, seek info that both validates your feelings and ____ them. Both provide valuable clues and cues
refutes
The struggle of knowing how much factual information to gather to confirm they are making a good decision and consequently delay their decision or make no decision describes
analysis paralysis
Responders growing impatient and engaging in independent goal setting describes
freelancing
A good rule of thumb depending on the emergency might be to gather ___ to____ percent o good, solid information to validate your intuition, and then make a decision and go with it
30 to 70%
The four essential requirements for Recognition-Primed Decisions (RPD) are
1) Situational Awareness
2) Tacit Knowledge
3) Mental Modeling
4) Self-confidence
A decision maker must develop and maintain strong _____ _____. A simple and often used definition for this is “paying attention”
Situational Awareness
The unconscious knowledge that experts possess from years of collective training and experience that resides mostly in the subconscious memory describes
tacit knowledge
____ ____ occurs when the decision maker takes what is happening at the current moment and, drawing upon training and experience, visualizes a plan of action. _____ display the future results of their decisions -stated simply, ____ ____ is making predictions of the future. This can also help a decision maker set benchmarks and help anticipate bad things that could happen.
Mental Modeling
A commander who thinks only in the ___ ____ is asking for trouble
current moment
The best mental modelers possess extensive expertise (acquired through training and experience) that aids in the rapid development of accurate ______
predictions
The fourth and final requirement for good RPD is self-efficacy, or _______. A decision maker must be willing to trust his/her intuition and the trust comes from understanding the origin of intuition. A decision maker who tries to make rational sense out of gut feelings can quickly dismiss the feeling there may be no overt, measurable evidence that something is wrong.
Self-confidence
When _______ leads to the feeling that somethings not right- “ I cant explain why, but something isn’t right about this situation”, the decision maker must trust the mental pattern match that has triggered this _______. Be careful about allowing rational, logical thinking to overrule concerns sparked by _____
intuition
