This is the second of a series of articles which will look at Command Judgement and Decision Making. (Part 1 - Introduction) is here.
Each part needs to be read in the sequential order presented as this is the way I believe you mentally go about using your Judgement to make a decision. There is no point in reading Part 2 before Part 1.
Senses
Senses are the physiological methods of perception, or how our bodies receive the “raw data” information and then transmit it to our brain.
Why is this important in a discussion on Judgement and Decision Making? Well, to use good Judgement and arrive at a sound decision requires information. To react requires recognition. The senses provide the relatively “unfiltered” raw data at the very beginning of the Judgement process.
We are literally bombarded with sensory inputs throughout our lives and these are detected by a number of different types of human senses (the number varies depending on who you believe and how they define “sense”). For our purposes we will briefly discuss the 5 “Far Senses” that most people are familiar with and 5 “Near Senses” that you may not be totally aware of.
(Click on the image for a larger view. This diagram will build with each additional Part).
Far Senses
The conventional or “classical” five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. These are the senses that most people are familiar with and provide most of our sensory information. They are called the “Far Senses” as the information inputs are received from outside the body (external sources).
Sight (Vision)
Sight is the most important sensory input we have as humans and as pilots (it provides about 80% of our sensory information input). Some scientists argue that vision is actually two different senses as we use different receptors to detect colour (frequency) and brightness (amplitude). Also we have two eyeballs, slightly separated, that provide us with stereopsis (the perception of depth). Vision gathers far more information in far less time than any of our other senses (“a picture is worth a thousand words”). Each eye is capable of sending to the brain about 1,000,000,000 bits of information every second.
Hearing (Audition)
Hearing is probably the second most important sense for us. This is an extremely important sense for us to communicate with (other crew members, ATC etc.) and communication is one of your required core skills as a Captain.
Touch (Tactition)
Touch is used to manipulate switches, knobs or dials and to “feel” your control inputs (and their feedback) into the flight control system. You will also be able to detect strange or unusual vibrations through the airframe. It is useful to get your F/O’s attention (when you punch him in the arm, however, this is considered to be poor CRM. Depending on the cockpit gradient you establish and your projection of authority and power you risk getting a tactile response back from him!).
Smell (Olfaction)
Not utilised very much normally, but smell will rapidly get your attention if you detect the “brown smell” of defective electrical equipment, raw Jet A1 or any burning smell. A nice smelling(?) crew meal may also jolt you awake.
Taste (Gustation)
Probably the least important sense for us as pilots (depends on the importance you place on your crew meals and/or what you choose to place in your mouth).
Near Senses
These senses may not be as familiar to you as the Far Senses. These senses are called the “Near Senses” as the information inputs are received from within the body (internal sources).
Balance and Acceleration (Equilibrioception)
The Vestibular sense, is the perception of balance or acceleration (inner ear). It is easy to produce illusions from this sense in our three dimensional and multi “G” aviation world.
Body Awareness (Proprioception)
The Kinaesthetic sense, is the perception of body awareness and is the "unconscious" awareness of the relationship between positions of the body (e.g. you can close your eyes and touch your finger to your nose). This sense also enables you to reach out “automatically” for a switch without looking for it and to pull back “just this much” on the control column or side stick to produce the required change in attitude.
Temperature (Thermoception)
The sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin.
Pain (Nociception)
This sense is physiological pain of near-damage or damage to tissue (see the Touch section about getting your F/O’s attention).
Internal Organs (Interoception)
The sensory system of your internal organs (e.g., heart rate, hunger, digestion, state of arousal, mood, etc.). You know when you need to “visit the little boy’s room” or, if you’ve undertaken a hypobaric chamber hypoxia simulation, what your individual hypoxia symptoms are.
Sense Limitations
Each of these senses has certain very specific limitations. The sensor or detector can only sense inputs of a certain kind and usually within a narrow physical or physiological band.
For example you can only “see” with your eyes. You can’t see with your ears as your auditory system is not designed to detect light. Visible light has to enter and be detected by the eye (you can’t see through the back of your head). That “visible light” has to be of a very specific frequency. A typical human eye will respond to electromagnetic frequencies in air from about 400-790 terahertz – red to violet colours. The light that does eventually enter your eye has further limitations. Acute vision is only possible within a narrow cone of central vision, the rest of the detected light is your peripheral vision.
So you do not receive visual information if you’ve got your eyes closed, if the light is coming from outside of your visual field of view or if it is in the infra-red or ultra-violet frequency range (i.e. not in the visible spectrum of light).
You will also not be able to receive certain visual information when the visual system reaches its physical limitations. You can’t see an aircraft coming out of the sun as the sun’s brightness is too great for the human eye to accommodate and the contrast between the aircraft and the sun is entirely swamped (also you can’t see black cats in black coal cellars). You can only see objects of a certain finite size; your eye’s resolving power (I bet you have a hard time seeing an aircraft during the day at 40 nm, but just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean that it’s not there).
Your own personal sensor may also be defective in some way. You may require corrective glasses for your defective vision (within certain aviation medicine limitations) or your higher frequency hearing may be damaged (you should have worn those ear defenders/plugs on all those external preflights!).
Your personal sensor is also affected by your physical state. If you’re tired and fatigued you may not be able to focus your eyes as quickly or be more light sensitive than when you are rested.
All of your other senses suffer from some form of different limitations and these restrictions affect the amount, type and quality of the “raw data” that your physical senses actually detect and send to your brain.
And it is these eventual raw data sensory signals that get sent to your brain for you to use to execute your Judgement and arrive at a decision. So if you have restrictions of raw data information going in you may not have the entire Big Picture and so could quite possibly rely on that “degraded” or “incomplete” information to use in your Judgement process and so reach a less than optimal decision.
Sensory Conclusion
Each of your human sensory systems has its’ own particular physical and/or physiological limitations. If you are at least aware of these sense limitations and/or illusions and errors, then you can take this into account throughout the Judgement process.
This sensory information input stuff all might seem completely unrelated to judgment and decision making, but it is where it all begins. To react requires recognition. You have to detect or sense a change in your environment or situation (recognise) before you can start to cognitively process that sensed information to eventually arrive at an output decision (react).
Being aware of what information you receive (and what senses are involved and their possible limitations and weaknesses) can help you in formulating a sound decision from the entire Judgement process.
Judgement and Decision Making (Part 3 – Perception).
This is only MY attempt at analysing Judgement and Decision Making – I’m just a professional aviator, not a psychologist so my thoughts may not conform with academia, but it is based on a real pilot’s perspective. What would you rather have; a psychologist explaining aviation or an aviator explaining psychology?
I welcome any feedback about this article. Please add YOUR pilot input (or if any psychologists read this, your thoughts) by using the COMMENTS link below.
Each part needs to be read in the sequential order presented as this is the way I believe you mentally go about using your Judgement to make a decision. There is no point in reading Part 2 before Part 1.
Senses are the physiological methods of perception, or how our bodies receive the “raw data” information and then transmit it to our brain.
Why is this important in a discussion on Judgement and Decision Making? Well, to use good Judgement and arrive at a sound decision requires information. To react requires recognition. The senses provide the relatively “unfiltered” raw data at the very beginning of the Judgement process.
We are literally bombarded with sensory inputs throughout our lives and these are detected by a number of different types of human senses (the number varies depending on who you believe and how they define “sense”). For our purposes we will briefly discuss the 5 “Far Senses” that most people are familiar with and 5 “Near Senses” that you may not be totally aware of.
Far Senses
The conventional or “classical” five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. These are the senses that most people are familiar with and provide most of our sensory information. They are called the “Far Senses” as the information inputs are received from outside the body (external sources).
Sight (Vision)
Sight is the most important sensory input we have as humans and as pilots (it provides about 80% of our sensory information input). Some scientists argue that vision is actually two different senses as we use different receptors to detect colour (frequency) and brightness (amplitude). Also we have two eyeballs, slightly separated, that provide us with stereopsis (the perception of depth). Vision gathers far more information in far less time than any of our other senses (“a picture is worth a thousand words”). Each eye is capable of sending to the brain about 1,000,000,000 bits of information every second.
Hearing (Audition)
Hearing is probably the second most important sense for us. This is an extremely important sense for us to communicate with (other crew members, ATC etc.) and communication is one of your required core skills as a Captain.
Touch (Tactition)
Touch is used to manipulate switches, knobs or dials and to “feel” your control inputs (and their feedback) into the flight control system. You will also be able to detect strange or unusual vibrations through the airframe. It is useful to get your F/O’s attention (when you punch him in the arm, however, this is considered to be poor CRM. Depending on the cockpit gradient you establish and your projection of authority and power you risk getting a tactile response back from him!).
Smell (Olfaction)
Not utilised very much normally, but smell will rapidly get your attention if you detect the “brown smell” of defective electrical equipment, raw Jet A1 or any burning smell. A nice smelling(?) crew meal may also jolt you awake.
Taste (Gustation)
Probably the least important sense for us as pilots (depends on the importance you place on your crew meals and/or what you choose to place in your mouth).
Near Senses
These senses may not be as familiar to you as the Far Senses. These senses are called the “Near Senses” as the information inputs are received from within the body (internal sources).
Balance and Acceleration (Equilibrioception)
The Vestibular sense, is the perception of balance or acceleration (inner ear). It is easy to produce illusions from this sense in our three dimensional and multi “G” aviation world.
Body Awareness (Proprioception)
The Kinaesthetic sense, is the perception of body awareness and is the "unconscious" awareness of the relationship between positions of the body (e.g. you can close your eyes and touch your finger to your nose). This sense also enables you to reach out “automatically” for a switch without looking for it and to pull back “just this much” on the control column or side stick to produce the required change in attitude.
Temperature (Thermoception)
The sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin.
Pain (Nociception)
This sense is physiological pain of near-damage or damage to tissue (see the Touch section about getting your F/O’s attention).
Internal Organs (Interoception)
The sensory system of your internal organs (e.g., heart rate, hunger, digestion, state of arousal, mood, etc.). You know when you need to “visit the little boy’s room” or, if you’ve undertaken a hypobaric chamber hypoxia simulation, what your individual hypoxia symptoms are.
Sense Limitations
Each of these senses has certain very specific limitations. The sensor or detector can only sense inputs of a certain kind and usually within a narrow physical or physiological band.
For example you can only “see” with your eyes. You can’t see with your ears as your auditory system is not designed to detect light. Visible light has to enter and be detected by the eye (you can’t see through the back of your head). That “visible light” has to be of a very specific frequency. A typical human eye will respond to electromagnetic frequencies in air from about 400-790 terahertz – red to violet colours. The light that does eventually enter your eye has further limitations. Acute vision is only possible within a narrow cone of central vision, the rest of the detected light is your peripheral vision.
So you do not receive visual information if you’ve got your eyes closed, if the light is coming from outside of your visual field of view or if it is in the infra-red or ultra-violet frequency range (i.e. not in the visible spectrum of light).
You will also not be able to receive certain visual information when the visual system reaches its physical limitations. You can’t see an aircraft coming out of the sun as the sun’s brightness is too great for the human eye to accommodate and the contrast between the aircraft and the sun is entirely swamped (also you can’t see black cats in black coal cellars). You can only see objects of a certain finite size; your eye’s resolving power (I bet you have a hard time seeing an aircraft during the day at 40 nm, but just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean that it’s not there).
Your own personal sensor may also be defective in some way. You may require corrective glasses for your defective vision (within certain aviation medicine limitations) or your higher frequency hearing may be damaged (you should have worn those ear defenders/plugs on all those external preflights!).
Your personal sensor is also affected by your physical state. If you’re tired and fatigued you may not be able to focus your eyes as quickly or be more light sensitive than when you are rested.
All of your other senses suffer from some form of different limitations and these restrictions affect the amount, type and quality of the “raw data” that your physical senses actually detect and send to your brain.
And it is these eventual raw data sensory signals that get sent to your brain for you to use to execute your Judgement and arrive at a decision. So if you have restrictions of raw data information going in you may not have the entire Big Picture and so could quite possibly rely on that “degraded” or “incomplete” information to use in your Judgement process and so reach a less than optimal decision.
Sensory Conclusion
Each of your human sensory systems has its’ own particular physical and/or physiological limitations. If you are at least aware of these sense limitations and/or illusions and errors, then you can take this into account throughout the Judgement process.
This sensory information input stuff all might seem completely unrelated to judgment and decision making, but it is where it all begins. To react requires recognition. You have to detect or sense a change in your environment or situation (recognise) before you can start to cognitively process that sensed information to eventually arrive at an output decision (react).
Being aware of what information you receive (and what senses are involved and their possible limitations and weaknesses) can help you in formulating a sound decision from the entire Judgement process.
Judgement and Decision Making (Part 3 – Perception).
This is only MY attempt at analysing Judgement and Decision Making – I’m just a professional aviator, not a psychologist so my thoughts may not conform with academia, but it is based on a real pilot’s perspective. What would you rather have; a psychologist explaining aviation or an aviator explaining psychology?
I welcome any feedback about this article. Please add YOUR pilot input (or if any psychologists read this, your thoughts) by using the COMMENTS link below.
0 comments:
Post a Comment