This action research project led a naturalistic decision-making inquiry into the influence of human factors in Canadian avalanche experts' decision-making. Using cognitive task analysis and the critical decision method, the author found that avalanche-related judgments and decisions occurred within a dynamic context influenced by individual, team, client, organizational, and socio-political human factors. Avalanche experts used a hierarchy of judgment and decision complexity that integrated rule-based, analytic, intuitive, and systems thinking modes of cognitive function. They applied strategies of pattern recognition, mental stimulation, critical thinking, and metacognition within a highly developed systems approach to judgment and decision making. The author offers six evidence-based recommendations designed to enhance avalanche judgment and decision-making capacities, and to counter the influence of negative human factors in the decision process.
