Experience-based decision-making, non-technical skills and general decision-making styles among aviation pilots

• Main Author: Rotbring, Lina
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Psykologiska institutionen 2010
• Subjects: Psychology; Psykologi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-40785

Aviation pilots are trained to base cockpit decisions on strategic and analytic reasoning, while naturalistic decision-making theory suggests that experts in naturalistic settings, like pilots, make decisions based on experience. In the present study, a scenario-based questionnaire was used, to explore the effects of aviation pilots´ non-technical skills and experience-based decision-making in a cockpit decision-making situation. Also, a negative relation between non-technical skills and decisions from experience was predicted. In addition, the relation between general decision-making styles, non-technical skills and experience-based decision-making, was explored. The results indicate that pilots´ non-technical skills can be predicted by a rational general decision-making style. However, the choice of action in a cockpit decision-making situation could not be predicted by high non-technical skills or high experience-based decision-making, and the expected relation failed to appear. The results are discussed in relation to existing theory.