Decision Making in Naval Aviation: Contextual Factors Influencing Cue and Factor Saliency

Aeronautical decision making research has focused almost exclusively on general and commercial aviation - with little attention given to the military aviation domain. This research has also been limited by its lack of realism and/or inability to probe aviators for additional clarifying information relevant to their decisions. This study addresses these shortcomings by using in-depth interviews of critical incidents guided by the critical decision method to gain a deeper understanding of the decision making process of experienced naval aviators during novel or unexpected situations in flight. Through this method, two contextual factors in the military aviation environment not previously addressed were identified: (a) the purpose of the flight; and (b) the flight operation environment. These two factors were found to influence each other in addition to impacting the saliency of certain cues and factors for the aviators. Implications for military aviator training and other domains of aviation are discussed.