Part 2 (Barriers to Commander Situational Awareness) Chapter 9: Workload Management

Question 1

In the aftermath of catastrophic events, emergency scene commanders often confide that they were affected by an excessive ____ or poor management of their _____

Answer 1

workload

Question 2

There is a growing body of evidence, supported by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology (fMRI) that proves it is biologically impossible to ____ ____ to more than one thing at a time

Answer 2

pay attention

Question 3

Think of your brain as having a two part attention management system _____ and _____ system

Answer 3

autopilot and pilot

Question 4

The autopilot is your ______ brain. At this level, your brain stores learned behaviors and allows you to perform tasks without giving them much thought. Your _____ brain is able to control the behavior from behind the scenes

Answer 4

subconscious brain

Question 5

The pilot is _____ brain. These are physical activities that are new to you or that are not memorized are controlled by you conscious brain. You actually have to think about ( and concentrate on) what you’re doing.

Answer 5

conscious

Question 6

Multitasking at the conscious level is _______.

Answer 6

Impossible

Question 7

At the conscious level, you can only focus on one thing at a time. However, you can quickly shift your focus from one thing to another and back to the first in very rapid succession so fast that it may seem like you are

Answer 7

Multitasking

Question 8

Every time your conscious brain shifts from one attention task to another and back to the first task, there is a chance that you will forget where you left off or struggle to locate point of reference of where you left off, thus potentially ____ to do something important

Answer 8

forgetting

Question 9

for many first responders the activities performed on the emergency scene must not be done using conscious memory for two reasons:

Answer 9

1) lack of continual and repetitive practice.

2) the notion that every emergency scene is uniquely different.

Question 10

Tasks residing in long-term memory can be performed ______

Answer 10

subconsciously

Question 11

The more tasks you try to perform simultaneously under stress, the more likely you are to make mistakes. The more information you try to process in you conscious memory, the more likely you are to become _______ and overwhelmed.

Answer 11

overloaded

Question 12

When you multitask at the conscious level ( which, you may recall is actually single tasking in multiple succession) you are setting something aside, if only momentarily, to do something else. When this happens two results can happen. _______. The end result is the same - the potential of failing to do something important

Answer 12

1) you forget where you left off
2) you come back to a task you were performing and think you already did a step when you didn’t, you just thought about completing it

Question 13

The instant a commander takes on performing a physical task, his ability to process and understand the big picture of what is happening at the overall incident scene can be affected two ways

Answer 13

1) use of brain capacity to perform the task

2) the inability to focus attention 2 different things at the same time

Question 14

you simply cannot be ______ and _______ on the big picture simultaneously

Answer 14

hands-on, and focused

Question 15

Commanders can get lured into becoming hands on because that is what they are most ______ with. When they become hands on, they lose the big picture. Its important to stay hands off and direct the workers to get the tasks done

Answer 15

comfortable