Metacognition and The Pilot Who Landed in the Hudson River - Introduction To Natural Disasters And Other Disasters

It was a modern-day miracle. The Jet plane had taken off from La Guardia Airport in New York and was flying over the Hudson River when both of its engines lost power and the smell of smoke and jet fuel filled the cabin. Air Traffic Controllers, in reply to his request, informed the Captain, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, that he was cleared to fly to and land in Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, some ten miles distance from where they were at the moment. Many airline and combat pilots, battle field soldiers, emergency room surgeons, ship Captains, firemen, police officers and others, are faced with situations that are so intense and terrifying that fear and panic could take over. Research demonstrates the fact that people, under these types of pressures and threats, experience fear but are not paralyzed into inaction. In fact, instead of becoming frozen with fear, these people think clearly, quickly and decisively. How is this so?

Actually, the answer to this question is that it has to do with something called "Metacognition." What is Metacognition?

In general, Metacognition is defined as "thinking about thinking." So, what is that supposed to mean? In other words, Metacognition is having a good grasp and understanding of what you already knows. In addition, an individual, such as Captain "Sully," has a strong grasp and awareness of the task being faced and understanding of the knowledge and skills that the task will require. Combine this with the agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one’s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably and you have Metacognition. Its somewhat akin to the chess player who not only sees the board in front of him at this moment, but is able to predict what the chess board will look like after five or six various moves into the future. He is able to do this because of his knowledge of the complexities of chess and his experience with playing against many chess masters.

It has been pointed out to me by one pilot I happen to know that Captain "Sully" and his crew were extremely lucky to land safely and with no loss of life. This pilot was not being critical but described all the potential scenarios that could have led to a less than perfect landing. For example, it was fortunate that there were no boats or ships in the middle of the river. A collision could have been disastrous. Still, even this pilot admits that it took great skill on the part of the captain and his co-captain and crew to land safely and get everyone out of the plane.

This is an important question because the implications of Metacognition are broader than its application to piloting. As was stated earlier, soldiers, doctors, nurses and countless others are forced into situations where they must keep a level head and think clearly.

To answer the question, "how does one acquire such skill," it is important to talk about three types of knowledge:

1. Declarative knowledge is the factual information that you know. It is learned in school and at home and it can be spoken or written. An example is knowing the formula for calculating momentum in a physics class (momentum = mass times velocity). Pilots must learn a lot about wind velocity, aerodynamics, weather conditions and how they impact on a flight and lots of other

2. Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something. It is knowing how to perform the steps in a process. For example, if we return to the physics class, the student now knows more than the formula for calculating momentum. He is now able to apply that knowledge to a real life situation. It is one thing to learn about aerodynamics in a classroom and another thing to land a jet airplane.

3. Conditional knowledge has to do with knowing when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy and when not to use it. It includes awareness of why a procedure works and under what conditions, In addition, Conditional knowledge is understanding why one procedure is better than another. Recently, there was an airplane crash near Buffalo, N.Y. and all 50 people on board were killed. The experts, according to news reports, are speculating that the pilot made the wrong decision about what to do when the jet was being hit by strong wind currents. It is possible that he miscalculated in using his Conditional knowledge.

I have always been interested in the subject of learning and education. I am certain that this is a result of my early experiences as a Junior and Senior High School teacher years ago. It struck me that many boys and girls were bored, missing school and failing to learn.

With cognitive psychology gaining a deeper understanding of how we think and learn, new ideas are being developed to enable more students to benefit from the school experience. Metacognition relates directly to this.

In using Metacognition, students become aware of how they think, what they know, how they learn, what their strengths and weaknesses are and how to improve their performance. Everyone's style of learning is different and no one rule holds true for all students. Therefore, students learn how to develop their own learning strategies.

However, the classroom teacher, using Metacognition, is or should be utilizing all three types of knowledge. Therefore, after the book learning occurs (declarative knowledge) it is important for students to move onto problem solving or developing procedural and conditional knowledge. In my opinion, this is where many schools fail. Too many youngsters come away from the school experience falsely believing that what they have learned or have refused to learn has no relevance or use in real life situations.

Today, with computer technology, students can engage in simulation activities that allow them to learn and apply both procedural and conditional knowledge.

Returning to our pilot, Captain "Sully" it is important to know that he and other pilots regularly engage in simulation activities in which they learn about and apply solutions to all types of possible situations and how to handle them.

I liken it to the training of doctors and nurses. Yes, there is a lot of book learning that comes with entering the field of medicine. However, medical and nursing students are quickly put out onto the hospital wards where they start to learn by doing. Only in this way can these people become the skilled medical people they are. In this way, they can work in emergency rooms or in emergency situations where they can use and apply their knowledge. All three types of knowing are used in training medical people as well as pilots and many others.

Of course, it is important to mention one more important variable in the learning process and that is motivation. Learning new skill can be very motivating but, if a student does not have some motivation to begin with then none of this might work. Doctors, nurses, pilots, psychologists and others continue the learning process. They do so because they are strongly motivated to become ever more skillful at what they do.

What are your comments and opinions about this topic including discussing your learning experiences?

Readers in the Boulder, Colorado metro area (or Denver area people willing to drive) may contact Dr. Schwartz for face-to-face consultation and psychotherapy. Email him at dransphd@aol.com for details.

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