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Selective Listening

These are the first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to selective listening.

The Minnesota Hometown Heroes Assistance Program – 405

    In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with George Esbensen, President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE) about the Hometown Heroes Assistance Program.   During his 32 years in the fire service, George Esbensen served in many roles, from firefighter to chief. Today, he volunteers as Board President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE), […]

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The 400th Episode Anniversary of the SAMatters Show – 400

    Dr. Gasaway, along with some special guests, celebrates the milestone of reaching our 400thepisode.   The Situational Awareness Matters Show debuted on May 12, 2014.  This episode highlights the journey Dr. Gasaway has taken to educate first responders about situational awareness and high-risk decision making. About the Host Richard B. Gasaway, PhD, CSP

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Dyslexia in the Fire Service: The Burt Clark Story – 396

In this episode, Dr. Gasaway talks with Dr. Burton Clark on the topic of Dyslexia in the fire service. Dr. Burton A. Clark, EFO has been in the fire service for 53 years. He’s known he was a Dyslexic since early childhood and is passionate about reducing the stigma around firefighters with Dyslexia. Dr. Clark was

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Hands-Free Driving Laws are a Bad Idea

Before you get too upset and refuse to read this article, I’ll ask you to give me just two minutes to explain the situational awareness lesson behind this statement. The first premise is: We must acknowledge (and accept) that it is easy for drivers to get distracted and have their situational awareness impacted while talking

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Twelve tips to improve situational awareness – SAM 383

In this episode, a special guest (Santa) presents twelve tips to improve situational awareness while working in high-risk, high consequence environments. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and ole Santa is feeling the situational awareness love. Surely, you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” – You know

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Short-Term Memory – SAM 367

In this episode, we preview the short-term memory chapter from the book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Short-term memory can create a formidable challenge to situational awareness. Long-term memory is huge, some might argue it’s limitless. Short-term memory, not so much. The capacity of the average person’s short-term memory is about

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19 Ways Communications can Impact SA – SAM 359

In this episode we discuss 19 ways that communications issues can impact Situational Awareness.     First responders spend a lot of time together, on calls, in the station, and in many cases in social settings outside of work. All of this interaction builds relationships that allow responders to trust their lives to each other. We’ll

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Information Overload – SAM 355

This episode explores the capacity of the human brain to process sensory stimuli into short-term memory and the impact it can have on situational awareness. The San Francisco Fire Department conducted an internal review of the incident and issued a 156-page report on their findings. Many of the lessons relate to situational awareness and it

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The Myth of Multitasking – SAM 346

This episode explores the challenges workers face while operating in dynamically changing conditions that require sharing attention to multiple, concurrent activities – a.k.a., multitasking.  If you are the type of person who can work on your notebook, listen to music on your iPod, talk on your cell phone and text message at the same time,

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Confabulated Realities Impact Situational Awareness – SAM 342

This episode explores how your brain can make up, or confabulate, its own reality.  A confabulated reality is one that we believe to be real but, in actuality, it is made up in our brain.  The problem with this is we rarely are able to distinguish between a confabulated reality and true reality until something

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