3 Cognitive Skills
3.1 Situational Awareness
Situational awareness involves conscious recognition of all the factors and conditions - operational, technical and human - which affect the safe operation of an aircraft. In order to establish situational awareness, human beings take in information through the 5 senses - touch, hearing, smell, sight and taste - both sub-consciously or intuitively. This information is then transformed by the brain into a mental model of the situation, a process known as perception. The perceptive process depends not merely on current information for its evaluation of the situation but also takes account of past experience and sensations. Perception is therefore a product not only of immediate sensations but also of cultural and social influences acquired through a life-time of experiences. Accordingly, because of the different factors which have shaped their lives, individuals interpret situations differently. Furthermore, they can also be unduly influenced by false information derived from the senses, such as illusions. Because of these factors, a high degree of situational awareness can be said to be achieved only when an individual’s perception of events approaches the reality of the situation.
For the pilot of an aircraft, much of the information from which situational awareness is derived comes from the flight instruments and the navigational equipment on board, so the process of constructing an accurate mental model of the position of the aircraft in space, its condition, and the condition of the crew, is subject to a number of degrading influences such as inattention, distraction, under-arousal, stress, boredom, fatigue, etc, etc. In these circumstances, confirming the accuracy of mental models with other crew members by sharing information and perceptions about the situation, and by stating intentions, becomes of paramount importance for the safe and effective management of the flight. Furthermore, sharing knowledge and information not only helps to avoid the more obvious incidents and accidents arising from loss of situational awareness, such as controlled flight into terrain, but also lays a firm foundation for high quality decisions regarding the overall management of the flight.

3.2 Planning and Decision Making
A central aim of CRM is to ensure that high quality decisions are taken across the whole spectrum of flight operations. In this context, thorough pre-flight planning will not only provide a yardstick against which in-flight decisions can be made but will also allow all members of the crew to manage their own specific areas of responsibility successfully. Understanding the plan also allows individual crew members to contribute in the most effective way to decisions made in flight. It is important, therefore, as the flight progresses, that the Captain updates the crew at regular intervals on any changes to the original plan, so that individual crew members can maintain good situational awareness. This is particularly important during abnormal operations or in an emergency situation, where conditions affecting the progress of the flight and the safety of the aircraft are likely to change rapidly. In these circumstances, regular updates on the status of the flight allow each individual crew member to be sufficiently aware of the situation and needs of the moment to contribute in the most effective way to the decision-making process.
　
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