A Qualitative Exploration of Critical Incidents: Expanding Neisser’s Perceptual Cycle Model

Abstract: The Perceptual Cycle Model (PCM) presents a process-orientated approach to understanding decision making by exploring the interaction between a person’s cognitive schema, the actions they undertake and information available in the world. This paper presents the work undertaken to refine and subcategorize the three elements of the PCM; schema, action and world, to gain a more detailed understanding of the aeronautical decision making process. Critical decision Method interviews were conducted with twenty rotary wing pilots to generate a set of critical incidents. These incidents were qualitatively analyzed using a coding scheme generated from the PCM and then the constant comparison technique was employed to generate the refined PCM coding scheme. The final PCM coding scheme contained 7 ‘schema types’, 14 ‘action types’ and 12 ‘world types’. Three critical incident case studies are presented to demonstrate the insights gained from using the refined coding scheme. Potential applications and plans for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Perceptual Cycle Model, Aeronautical Decision making, Critical Decision Method, Qualitative Analysis

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100604

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