Distributed Cognition and Reality

In the aviation environment, judgement and decision-making in the handling of emergency situations is usually the factor that determines whether or not an incident turns into an accident. The benefit of hindsight allows labels of 'human error' or 'poor decision-making' to be applied to the decision output. What should be sought by researchers and accident investigators is an understanding of the local rationality of operators via their decision-making process, in order to establish why actions and assessments made sense to the operator at the time they were made. This book explores aeronautical critical decision-making through the Perceptual Cycle Model (PCM). The PCM describes the reciprocal, cyclical, relationship that exists between operators and their work environment, depicting the interaction between internally held mental schemata and externally available environmental information in making decisions and actions. The reader is first introduced to Distributed Cognition and Schema Theory: a central, but controversial, element of the PCM. Following this, a case-study analysis of the Kegworth plane crash exemplifies the theory. Through critical-incident interviews conducted in rotary wing aviation, Distributed Cognition and Reality demonstrates how the PCM can explain local rationality. A new method has been developed and validated to assist in the elicitation and analysis of critical decisions. The book also applies the PCM to the study of teams within a search and rescue context, demonstrating how teams function in a distributed perceptual cycle. The concluding chapter discusses the findings in light of their theoretical, methodological and practical applications. Relevant readerships for this work include researchers, academics, practitioners and students in human factors, ergonomics, engineering and aviation. The book will also have broad appeal to anyone involved in training and evaluating pilot decision-making, such as accident investigators and