This is the third of a series of articles which will look at Command Judgement and Decision Making. (Part 2 - Senses 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 3 before Part 2.
Sense Filters
Our senses (both the “Far Senses” and the “Near Senses”) continually bombard our brain with massive quantities of sensory information.
Vision provides about 80% of our sensory input and our eyes are capable of sending to the brain about 1,000,000,000 messages every second. Add to this the auditory information that you receive from hearing and taste, smells, tactile information, inputs from your vestibular system and the other senses. It all adds up to a vast amount of information that you are capable of receiving. This is occurring all the time, every second of your life.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)
So how do we as pilot’s (and humans) process this massive amount of sensory information? The short answer is that we don’t. Your brain can only handle a finite amount of informational processing and it does this by “filtering” out some of the sensory inputs.
What Do You Sense?
I’m guessing that you’re sitting at home reading this on a computer screen. Are you aware of how much pressure is being sensed by your butt as you sit there reading, the position of your left elbow joint, the touch on your skin of your clothes, the temperature and breeze from the air conditioner, your wife asking you to mow the lawn (well, this one is probably best described as selective hearing), traffic noise from outside your study, the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe, the beating of your heart? All of these things are being sensed but you don’t notice them until you force yourself to pay attention to them. How many things in your room can you “see” while you are focussed on reading this blog? You are most likely using your acute central vision to read individual or groups of words in the text and disregarding or “filtering” out your peripheral vision as you concentrate your attention on the reading and comprehension task of this particularly intellectually stimulating diatribe.
The same thing happens whenever you strap your bum to an aircraft and go flying. How often do you consciously register the airflow noise going over the cockpit or smell the individual odour of your particular aircraft’s cockpit? Do you consciously detect the changes in G whenever you do a turn or notice how much pressure is being applied by your right foot? Do you hear the avionics fan(s) whirring in the background or the air flow noise of the air conditioning system? All these things are occurring around you and you are sensing them, but your brain is “filtering” much of these sensory inputs so that you don’t become over-stimulated and overwhelmed.
How It Works
At this “pre-attentive”, filtering stage of sensory data gathering, the raw data is coarsely processed. It is normally very rapid, automatic and occurs without conscious thought. The information is only retained for a fraction of a second and is then lost if the information is not determined to be important – it gets rapidly replaced by other raw data sensory inputs. The raw data is only very basically and coarsely analysed (your vision sense might be unconsciously aware of a small, relatively stationary, white blob out of the corner of your eye, in the periphery of vision – but the meaning of that white blob is unknown). The raw data sensory input has a very large capacity, for example, it can process the entire visual field simultaneously. So if your vision sense “detects” the white blob, but you determine unconsciously and automatically that it is not important (and this occurs rapidly) and thus do not process the information further (and this occurs at a far slower rate and requires conscious thought) you will in effect “forget” about the white blob. The raw data white blob sensory information will be replaced by other raw data and be filtered out of your system.
Filter Effects
What you eventually filter out is to a certain extent learned or gained through experience. You are able to detect your flight’s call sign in amongst the ATC radio chatter while simultaneously conducting a conversation with the other pilot. This is relatively simple for an experienced aviator as you have learned to do this over many years, but for someone else not familiar with aviation radio calls, all the chatter might just be total gibberish and they would be unable to isolate the important stuff (your call sign and the associated message). When the airflow noise over the cockpit is at a “normal” level you don’t even register the sound, but if it became louder (increasing IAS) or quieter (decreasing IAS) you might then start paying attention to it – it has become “unfiltered” and something that you should pay attention to.
What is eventually filtered out is also affected by your emotional (mental) and physical state. Obviously if you are affected by drugs (and these may be normal over the counter drugs if you’re self medicating for a cold or a headache for instance), this can affect your cognitive processing and alter how much sensory information is detected and then subsequently “filtered”. Your emotional state can also influence this filtration. If you are happy, angry, sad, bored or depressed, what gets filtered can be different from other emotional states. The same can occur if you are physically fatigued or tired or are suffering from sleep loss (does this seem familiar to those of you doing Long Haul flights?!).
This sensory “filtering” process is a very individual thing and varies between different pilots, even though they may receive exactly the same “raw data”.
Summary
To exercise good judgement and arrive at a good decision requires good information. We get that information from our senses (both Far and Near), but the raw data is heavily, automatically and unconsciously “filtered” so that we do not suffer from sensory over-load. It is only retained for a fraction of a second and if not important is rapidly replaced by other sensory raw data.
What you do with this sensory raw data is the subject of further articles – so stay tuned.
Judgement & Decision Making (Part 4 - 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 3 before Part 2.
Our senses (both the “Far Senses” and the “Near Senses”) continually bombard our brain with massive quantities of sensory information.
Vision provides about 80% of our sensory input and our eyes are capable of sending to the brain about 1,000,000,000 messages every second. Add to this the auditory information that you receive from hearing and taste, smells, tactile information, inputs from your vestibular system and the other senses. It all adds up to a vast amount of information that you are capable of receiving. This is occurring all the time, every second of your life.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)So how do we as pilot’s (and humans) process this massive amount of sensory information? The short answer is that we don’t. Your brain can only handle a finite amount of informational processing and it does this by “filtering” out some of the sensory inputs.
What Do You Sense?
I’m guessing that you’re sitting at home reading this on a computer screen. Are you aware of how much pressure is being sensed by your butt as you sit there reading, the position of your left elbow joint, the touch on your skin of your clothes, the temperature and breeze from the air conditioner, your wife asking you to mow the lawn (well, this one is probably best described as selective hearing), traffic noise from outside your study, the rise and fall of your chest as you breathe, the beating of your heart? All of these things are being sensed but you don’t notice them until you force yourself to pay attention to them. How many things in your room can you “see” while you are focussed on reading this blog? You are most likely using your acute central vision to read individual or groups of words in the text and disregarding or “filtering” out your peripheral vision as you concentrate your attention on the reading and comprehension task of this particularly intellectually stimulating diatribe.
The same thing happens whenever you strap your bum to an aircraft and go flying. How often do you consciously register the airflow noise going over the cockpit or smell the individual odour of your particular aircraft’s cockpit? Do you consciously detect the changes in G whenever you do a turn or notice how much pressure is being applied by your right foot? Do you hear the avionics fan(s) whirring in the background or the air flow noise of the air conditioning system? All these things are occurring around you and you are sensing them, but your brain is “filtering” much of these sensory inputs so that you don’t become over-stimulated and overwhelmed.
How It Works
At this “pre-attentive”, filtering stage of sensory data gathering, the raw data is coarsely processed. It is normally very rapid, automatic and occurs without conscious thought. The information is only retained for a fraction of a second and is then lost if the information is not determined to be important – it gets rapidly replaced by other raw data sensory inputs. The raw data is only very basically and coarsely analysed (your vision sense might be unconsciously aware of a small, relatively stationary, white blob out of the corner of your eye, in the periphery of vision – but the meaning of that white blob is unknown). The raw data sensory input has a very large capacity, for example, it can process the entire visual field simultaneously. So if your vision sense “detects” the white blob, but you determine unconsciously and automatically that it is not important (and this occurs rapidly) and thus do not process the information further (and this occurs at a far slower rate and requires conscious thought) you will in effect “forget” about the white blob. The raw data white blob sensory information will be replaced by other raw data and be filtered out of your system.
Filter Effects
What you eventually filter out is to a certain extent learned or gained through experience. You are able to detect your flight’s call sign in amongst the ATC radio chatter while simultaneously conducting a conversation with the other pilot. This is relatively simple for an experienced aviator as you have learned to do this over many years, but for someone else not familiar with aviation radio calls, all the chatter might just be total gibberish and they would be unable to isolate the important stuff (your call sign and the associated message). When the airflow noise over the cockpit is at a “normal” level you don’t even register the sound, but if it became louder (increasing IAS) or quieter (decreasing IAS) you might then start paying attention to it – it has become “unfiltered” and something that you should pay attention to.
What is eventually filtered out is also affected by your emotional (mental) and physical state. Obviously if you are affected by drugs (and these may be normal over the counter drugs if you’re self medicating for a cold or a headache for instance), this can affect your cognitive processing and alter how much sensory information is detected and then subsequently “filtered”. Your emotional state can also influence this filtration. If you are happy, angry, sad, bored or depressed, what gets filtered can be different from other emotional states. The same can occur if you are physically fatigued or tired or are suffering from sleep loss (does this seem familiar to those of you doing Long Haul flights?!).
This sensory “filtering” process is a very individual thing and varies between different pilots, even though they may receive exactly the same “raw data”.
Summary
To exercise good judgement and arrive at a good decision requires good information. We get that information from our senses (both Far and Near), but the raw data is heavily, automatically and unconsciously “filtered” so that we do not suffer from sensory over-load. It is only retained for a fraction of a second and if not important is rapidly replaced by other sensory raw data.
What you do with this sensory raw data is the subject of further articles – so stay tuned.
Judgement & Decision Making (Part 4 - 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.
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