Simulation Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

The 400th Episode Anniversary of the SAMatters Show – 400

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Automation, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Comprehension, Confabulation, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Goals, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Illness, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Insubordination, Interruptions, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Live Events, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Motion Induced Blindness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Neuroscience, News, Online Classes, Optimism, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, PAR, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Physical Fitness, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Progress Reports, Questions & Answers, Radios, Repetition, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Technology, Testimonials, Time Distortion, Training, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, understaffing, Understanding, Vigilance, Virtual Training, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

Dr. Gasaway, along with some special guests, celebrates the milestone of reaching our 400thepisode. The Situational Awareness Matters Show debuted on May 12, 2014. This episode highlights the journey Dr. Gasaway has taken to educate first responders about situational awareness and high-risk decision making. About the Host Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, CSP […]

The 400th Episode Anniversary of the SAMatters Show – 400 Read More »

2015 Amtrak Passenger Train Derailment in Philadelphia – 399

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Competency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Judgment, Leadership, Miscommunications, Mission, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, Dr. Gasaway interviews Vince Mulray, retired Philadelphia Deputy Chief, discussing the 2015 derailment of Amtrak Train #188 traveling from Washington DC to New York City. On May 12, 2015, at approximately 9:20pm, Amtrak Train #188 traveling from Washington D.C. to New York City derailed and crashed on the Frankford Junction curve

2015 Amtrak Passenger Train Derailment in Philadelphia – 399 Read More »

Tactical Decision Games – An Interview with Phil Jose – 398

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Cognitive Memory, Command Support, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Intuition, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Mission, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Technology, Training / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, Dr. Gasaway talks with Phil Jose about tactical decision games. Phil Jose, Deputy Chief, (Ret.), 30 years in Seattle Fire Department. He chaired the SOG and PIA committees. Chief of the Year 2013. FDIC Instructor 19 years with the highest attended class in 2023: The Art of Reading Smoke. FDIC 2008

Tactical Decision Games – An Interview with Phil Jose – 398 Read More »

Simulations Improve Situational Awareness – SAM 371

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Pattern Matching, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Technology, Training, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we discuss how simulations can improve situational awareness. Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In neuroscience, this is called projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future events. This is accomplished through mental

Simulations Improve Situational Awareness – SAM 371 Read More »

Short-Term Memory – SAM 367

Leave a Comment / Checklists, Confusion, Decision Making, Defiance, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Judgment, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Short Term Memory, Simulation, Situational awareness, Size Up, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we preview the short-term memory chapter from the book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Short-term memory can create a formidable challenge to situational awareness. Long-term memory is huge, some might argue it’s limitless. Short-term memory, not so much. The capacity of the average person’s short-term memory is about

Short-Term Memory – SAM 367 Read More »

Conducting Realistic Fire Training – SAM 358

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

In this episode we put the shoe on the other foot… and I am interviewed by Chris Crawford is a firefighter with the Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania Fire Department and a Public Administration major at Point Park University. Chris was writing a paper on firefighter training for his Applications of Fire Research Class and asked to

Conducting Realistic Fire Training – SAM 358 Read More »

Situational Awareness Lessons from a Line of Duty Death

Leave a Comment / Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Line of Duty Death, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Task Saturation, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Watch this YouTube video detailing the circumstances of a firefighter line of duty death in which a firefighter from British Columbia was tragically killed when a shipping container exploded without warning. Oftentimes when a firefighter is killed in the line of duty the lessons are not shared. Credit to the department and the province for

Situational Awareness Lessons from a Line of Duty Death Read More »

Weapons of Mass Distraction

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Distractions and Interruptions, Experience, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Overwhelm, Prediction, Repetition, Simulation, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

The foundation for developing situational awareness is perception – using your senses to gather information about what is happening around you. In lay terms, we call it paying attention. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to develop strong situational awareness if you are not paying attention to what is happening around you. For better

Weapons of Mass Distraction Read More »

Using the Simulation Environment to Improve Situational Awareness

11 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Information overload, Mental Models, Neuroscience, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Stress, Technology, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Many first responder training programs use simulation in the development of decision-making competencies. Simulation exercises help develop skills in setting strategy and tactics, in applying policies and procedures and in developing critical thinking skills. How can simulations be used in the development of situational awareness skills? The answer lies, in part, in understanding what situational

Using the Simulation Environment to Improve Situational Awareness Read More »

Situational Awareness and Decision Making Tips for Training

1 Comment / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Fatigue, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Intuition, Multitasking, Questions & Answers, Risk Assessment, Safety, Simulation, Size Up, Teamwork, Technology, Training / Rich Gasaway

I recently received an email from a SAMatters community member asking for tips to improve size-up, situational awareness and decision making while training in a flashover simulator. It was a great question (thank you Captain Scott Byers from the Tracy Fire Department)! I offered Scott a number of ideas and thought it would be good

Situational Awareness and Decision Making Tips for Training Read More »