Part 1 (Decision Making and Situational Awareness) Chapter 3: Recognition-Primed Decision Making Process

Question 1

An effective method for making high-risk, high-consequences decisions. It is sometimes referred to as RPD or RPMD

Answer 1

Recognized primed decision making

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

Gary Klein

Question 3

Army had been training battlefield commanders to use traditional decision making because it was the ________ until Gary came along

Answer 3

only one that existed

Question 4

Sometimes referred to as ___ _____ in the research community, means to observe the decision makers in their natural environments

Answer 4

going native

Question 5

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

Answer 5

fireground

Question 6

______ commanders operate in a time-compressed, high-stakes, rapidly changing, and unpredictable environment

Answer 6

Fireground

Question 7

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

Answer 7

a choice between two or more alternatives

Question 8

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:

Answer 8

Mental Modeling

Question 9

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,

Answer 9

1st

Question 10

For commanders to successfully used RPDM, they must have a level of _____ to draw upon from a collection of experiences and trainings

Answer 10

expertise

Question 11

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

Answer 11

time

Question 12

Commanders must size up situations quickly, often less than a

Answer 12

minute

Question 13

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

Answer 13

5-15

Question 14

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

Answer 14

expert

Question 15

In regards to negative cues and clues, the negative means

Answer 15

absent (but should be there)

Question 16

____ 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

Answer 16

novice

Question 17

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

Answer 17

The novice disadvantage

Question 18

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

Answer 18

physical reactions to stress

Question 19

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.

Answer 19

Hypothalamus

Question 20

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

Answer 20

chemical dump

Question 21

The recruit FF going through basic training is likely to experience more stress than an experienced FF who has been under stress many times

Answer 21

true

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Kidneys and digestive

Question 23

A hallmark quality of a good public safety responder is

Answer 23

making rapid decisions under stress

Question 24

Intuition, triggered by stress can lead to the often-referenced intuitive ___ ____

Answer 24

gut feelings

Question 25

The term often used to describe the physical response to stress is called the

Answer 25

Fight or Flight syndrome/response

Question 26

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 (__________)

Answer 26

random access memory -RAM

Hard Drive

Question 27

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.

Answer 27

working memory

Question 28

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.

Answer 28

storage

Question 29

Memory is not stored in one place, it can be stored in many places across your ____

Answer 29

cortex

Question 30

_____ _____ 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

Answer 30

memory loss

Question 31

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

Answer 31

• how recent the experience

- significance you give to certain events in your life

Question 32

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 _____

Answer 32

gut feeling

Question 33

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”

Answer 33

Tacit Knowledge

Question 34

Gary Kleins research group rode along with fireground commanders in

Answer 34

Cleveland, Ohio

Question 35

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

Answer 35

pattern match

Question 36

your brain is not infallible, therefore it is important to _______ and validate the decision as being a good one

Answer 36

seek out the facts

Question 37

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

Answer 37

confirmation bias

Question 38

The main that inspired the movie Rain Man

Answer 38

Kim Peak

Question 39

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

Answer 39

Tacit Knowledge

Question 40

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_

Answer 40

Jigsaw Puzzle, Puzzle Pieces

Question 41

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

Answer 41

prefrontal cortex

Question 42

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

Answer 42

Chunking

Question 43

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

Answer 43

refutes

Question 44

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

Answer 44

analysis paralysis

Question 45

Responders growing impatient and engaging in independent goal setting describes

Answer 45

freelancing

Question 46

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

Answer 46

30 to 70%

Question 47

The four essential requirements for Recognition-Primed Decisions (RPD) are

Answer 47

1) Situational Awareness
2) Tacit Knowledge
3) Mental Modeling
4) Self-confidence

Question 48

A decision maker must develop and maintain strong _____ _____. A simple and often used definition for this is “paying attention”

Answer 48

Situational Awareness

Question 49

The unconscious knowledge that experts possess from years of collective training and experience that resides mostly in the subconscious memory describes

Answer 49

tacit knowledge

Question 50

____ ____ 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.

Answer 50

Mental Modeling

Question 51

A commander who thinks only in the ___ ____ is asking for trouble

Answer 51

current moment

Question 52

The best mental modelers possess extensive expertise (acquired through training and experience) that aids in the rapid development of accurate ______

Answer 52

predictions

Question 53

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.

Answer 53

Self-confidence

Question 54

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 _____

Answer 54

intuition