Patterns, Action Scripts, Mental Simulation and Mental Models

I have come across a new way of thinking about what it is we do when confronted by adversity be it a problem of a serious nature at home or work or whether a dangerous problem that involves violence. The dangerous does include work as professionals in areas such as police and firefighting not to lessen that of the military are included since they encounter violence in all forms. 

RPD or recognition-primed decision making. It involves gaining experience through the forming of patterns. Patterns are a natural way for humans to categorize things well so that it is a learned system available to the logical and lizard brain for making decisions. It also involves action scripts formed from analysis of the patterns, i.e. the experience. The mental simulation takes the action scripts and assess them accordingly so that they can drive the all important end result, the mental models we create that are used intuitively to make fast, flexible and adaptable decisions/actions or mental models we use to make said decisions. 

Now, what I am trying to accomplish is to see how this works in the most dangerous of situations where speed, flexibility and adaptability are critical, i.e. they involve violence, damage and survival. This would be, at the low end, self-defense and, at the upper end, the military, police, prison and jail guard officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personal. 

Gary Klein in his book "The Power of Intuition" explains the RPD process, intuitive decision making process:

- Cues let us recognize patterns.

- Patterns activate action scripts.

- Action scripts are assessed through mental simulation.

- Mental simulation is driven by mental models.

If seems to involve the process in how we should assimilate our experiences. It also gives a clue as to how we should handle the experiences from its first encounter through to how we should then analyze it to create appropriate patterns, action scripts, mental simulation, and mental models that are stored for future use though practice, training and in the future applications. 

Does this sound familiar to you?

Bibliography:

Klein, Gary. "The Power of Intuition: Ho to Use Your Gut Feelings To Make Better Decisions at Work." Doubleday. New York. 2003.