Situational awareness and safety

This paper considers the applicability of situation awareness concepts to safety in the control of complex systems. Much of the research to date has been conducted in aviation, which has obvious safety implications. It is argued that the concepts could be extended to other safety critical domains. The paper presents three theories of situational awareness: the three-level model, the interactive sub-systems approach, and the perceptual cycle. The difference between these theories is the extent to which they emphasise process or product as indicative of situational awareness. Some data from other studies are discussed to consider the negative effects of losing situational awareness, as this has serious safety implications. Finally, the application of situational awareness to system design, and training are presented

Understanding a Player’s Decision-Making Process in Team Sports: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence

Three perspectives have been taken to explain decision making within team sports (information processing, recognition primed decision making and ecological dynamics perspectives) resulting in conceptual tension and practical confusion. The aim of this paper was to interrogate empirical evidence to (1) understand the process of decision making within team sports and (2) capture the characteristics of decision making expertise in a team sport context. Nine electronic databases (SPORTdiscus, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, Psych-tests, PubMed, SAGE journals online, Web of knowledge, Academic search complete and Web of science) were searched until the final return in March 2021. Fifty-three articles satisfied the inclusion criteria, and were analysed thematically and synthesisd using a narrative approach. Findings indicate that the relative absence or presence of mental representation within the decision making process depends on factors including complexity, typicality, time available and contextual priors available in the game situation. We recommend that future research should integrate concepts and methodologies prevalent within each perspective to better understand decision making within team sports before providing implications for practitioners

The effect of time constraint on anticipation, decision making, and option generation in complex and dynamic environments

Researchers interested in performance in complex and dynamic situations have focused on how individuals predict their opponent(s) potential courses of action (i.e., during assessment) and generate potential options about how to respond (i.e., during intervention). When generating predictive options, previous research supports the use of cognitive mechanisms that are consistent with long-term working memory (LTWM) theory (Ericsson and Kintsch in Phychol Rev 102(2):211–245, 1995; Ward et al. in J Cogn Eng Decis Mak 7:231–254, 2013). However, when generating options about how to respond, the extant research supports the use of the take-the-first (TTF) heuristic (Johnson and Raab in Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 91:215–229, 2003). While these models provide possible explanations about how options are generated in situ, often under time pressure, few researchers have tested the claims of these models experimentally by explicitly manipulating time pressure. The current research investigates the effect of time constraint on option-generation behavior during the assessment and intervention phases of decision making by employing a modified version of an established option-generation task in soccer. The results provide additional support for the use of LTWM mechanisms during assessment across both time conditions. During the intervention phase, option-generation behavior appeared consistent with TTF, but only in the non-time-constrained condition. Counter to our expectations, the implementation of time constraint resulted in a shift toward the use of LTWM-type mechanisms during the intervention phase. Modifications to the cognitive-process level descriptions of decision making during intervention are proposed, and implications for training during both phases of decision making are discussed

Decision making and risk management in adventure sports coaching

Adventure sport coaches practice in environments that are dynamic and high in risk, both perceived and actual. The inherent risks associated with these activities, individuals’ responses and the optimal exploitation of both combine to make the processes of risk management more complex and hazardous than the traditional sports where risk management is focused almost exclusively on minimization. Pivotal to this process is the adventure sports coaches’ ability to make effective judgments regarding levels of risk, potential benefits and possible consequences. The exact nature of this decision making process should form the basis of coaching practice and coach education in this complex and dynamic field. This positional paper examines decision making by the adventure sports coach in these complex, challenging environments and seeks to stimulate debate whilst offering a basis for future research into this topic

The Use of Flight Progress Strips While Working Live Traffic: Frequencies, Importance, and Perceived Benefits

The Federal Aviation Administration's effort to automate air traffic control (ATC) requires that the functionality provided today be captured in future systems. We report the first quantitative naturalistic observation of paper flight progress strip interactions during operational use. Strip use was similar in a variety of situations, but some uses varied as a function of altitude, staffing, or the cooperative style used by controller teams. Design of automation should proceed by prioritizing changes based on frequency of use and importance and should ensure that an effective method of interacting with flight information is incorporated. In addition to applied relevance to the ATC domain, the results touch on several theoretical concerns relevant to dynamic environments. Actual and potential applications of this research include the establishment of a database of strip activity and an arsenal of information valuable to system designers.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

A Communal Language for Decision Making in Team Invasion Sports

Invasion team sports coaches are faced with the problem of developing players who, in any given situation, can make decisions that lead to successful outcomes. Research into human decision making has established three widely accepted perspectives, which sports coaching has used to understand player decision making and inform practice: information processing, ecological psychology and naturalistic decision making. As a result, coaches are challenged with perspective-specific terminology and having to draw connections between similar findings that are explained in quite different ways. This conceptual paper presents a plainer account of player decision making by proposing a communal language within a conceptual framework for decision making in invasion team sports. It is hoped that the proposed language and framework will, together, facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers and coaches for the betterment of player development

The role of expertise in dynamic risk assessment: A reflection of the problem-solving strategies used by experienced fireground commanders

Although the concept of dynamic risk assessment has in recent times become more topical in the training manuals of most high risk domains, only a few empirical studies have reported how experts actually carry out this crucial task. The knowledge gap between research and practice in this area therefore calls for more empirical investigation within the naturalistic environment. In this paper, we present and discuss the problem solving strategies employed by sixteen experienced operational firefighters using a qualitative knowledge elicitation tool — the critical decision method. Findings revealed that dynamic risk assessment is not merely a process of weighing the risks of a proposed course of action against its benefits, but rather an experiential and pattern recognition process. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of designing training curriculum for the less experienced officers using the elicited expert knowledge

Cognitive Engineering

Cognitive engineering is the application of cognitive psychology and related disciplines to the design and operation of human–machine systems. Cognitive engineering combines both detailed and close study of the human worker in the actual work context and the study of the worker in more controlled environments. Cognitive engineering combines multiple methods and perspectives to achieve the goal of improved system performance. Given the origins of experimental psychology itself in issues regarding the design of human–machine systems, cognitive engineering is a core, or fundamental, discipline within academic psychology

Homicide detectives' intuition

Little is known about the decision-making processes of homicide detectives; this study is a first step towards understanding the inferential processes they engage in during the initial stages of an investigation. A card sorting exercise consisting of 20 crime scene photographs showing homicide victims in situ was designed to examine how detectives categorise and conceptualise homicide crime scenes. Forty homicide detectives were asked to 'think aloud' whilst categorising the crime scenes. Qualitative content analysis of the 'think aloud' accounts revealed detectives' intuitive ability to automatically make detailed inferences regarding the circumstances surrounding each homicide on the basis of available crime scene information (victim's sex, location, and method of death). A cycle of cognition was evident whereby detectives drew upon the contextual information available to generate hypotheses regarding homicide type (domestic, male brawl, and crime-related) and derive inferences about victim-offender relationship, offender behaviour, motive, and whether the offence was spontaneous or planned. The detectives made 594 inferences of which 67% (N=398) were accurate. The sorting exercise proved to be ecologically valid, with detectives reporting that they assessed and interpreted the homicide crime scenes, as they would in an actual investigation. The implications for police training and 'offender profiling' research are discussed. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd