Oscillating Decision-Making Cognition. Pilots Personal Sensitivity to a Negative Outcome

Michael O'Driscoll, University College Cork
Gaye Kiely, University College Cork
John McAvoy, University College Cork

Abstract

The past decade has seen a gradual mistrust of the human-centric decision-making approaches with both researchers and practitioners advocating an increased use of data-driven decision making to lower decision-making risk. This is seen as vital in the aviation field with one of the greatest risks to passenger safety being errors in pilot decision making. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has cited a loss of control in a pilot’s decision making as the number one cause of fatal accidents from 2016-2017. Although the introduction of information systems has attempted to lower the risk of fatal crashes, human decision-making is still required. This article seeks to understand if a pilot will oscillate between human-centric decision-making approaches and information system based decision-making approaches. The implications of these oscillations for information systems and the associated risks in the aviation field are then presented.

 

Oscillating Decision-Making Cognition. Pilots Personal Sensitivity to a Negative Outcome

The past decade has seen a gradual mistrust of the human-centric decision-making approaches with both researchers and practitioners advocating an increased use of data-driven decision making to lower decision-making risk. This is seen as vital in the aviation field with one of the greatest risks to passenger safety being errors in pilot decision making. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has cited a loss of control in a pilot’s decision making as the number one cause of fatal accidents from 2016-2017. Although the introduction of information systems has attempted to lower the risk of fatal crashes, human decision-making is still required. This article seeks to understand if a pilot will oscillate between human-centric decision-making approaches and information system based decision-making approaches. The implications of these oscillations for information systems and the associated risks in the aviation field are then presented.