cognitive biases Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

How Flawed Expectations Can Impact Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Decision Making, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Leadership, Prediction, Risk Assessment, Safety, Tacit Knowledge, Training / Rich Gasaway

The development of situational awareness happens on a three-tiered continuum. It begins with perceiving your environment. Then, what is perceived must be understood (and this is not as simple as it may appear). Finally, understanding is used to predict the future. Summarizing, the three-step process: Perception – Understanding – Prediction. This article provides an example […]

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Anchoring Bias as a Barrier to Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Meta Awareness, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Tacit Knowledge / Rich Gasaway

There are over 100 cognitive biases that can impact situational awareness, and subsequently, decision making. Many of these biases are discussed during the Mental Management of Emergencies and Flawed Situational Awareness programs because it is important for responders to understand that we may possess a bias without knowing it and without knowing the impact of

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Resistance to Change

2 Comments / Article, Bravado / Rich Gasaway

Imagine for a moment that you’re part of a 4-person first-due crew responding on to an apartment fire. On the way to the call the dispatcher announces over the radio that a caller is reporting the fire to be on the first floor of a three-story apartment building. Your company officer tells you that on

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