Gary A. Klein

Gary Klein
Born February 5, 1944
New York City, New York, U.S. United States
Nationality American
Education B.A. in Psychology, Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology
Occupation Research Psychologist
Spouse(s) Helen Klein

Gary Klein (born February 5, 1944 in New York City, New York, U.S.) is a research psychologist famous for pioneering in the field of naturalistic decision making.[1] By studying experts such as firefighters in their natural environment, he discovered that laboratory models of decision making could not describe it under uncertainty. His recognition primed decision (RPD) model has influenced changes in the ways the Marines and Army train their officers to make decisions.[2]

Klein received his B.A. in Psychology from City College of New York (1964) and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh (1969). He listed his main influences as Hubert Dreyfus, Adriaan de Groot, and Karl Duncker in an October 2013 interview with Bob Morris. [3]

Since 2009, Klein has been a Senior Scientist at MacroCognition LLC.[4]

He spent the first phase of his career in academia as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Oakland University (1970-1974). He also spent a few years as Associate Professor of Psychology at Wilberforce University in Ohio.

The second phase was spent working for the government as a research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force (1974-1978). The Arab oil embargo of 1973 meant that pilots needed to do more of their training in simulators, and Klein began his investigations into the way people develop expertise.

The third phase began in 1978 when he founded his own R&D company, Klein Associates, to study a range of topics that are now described as the Naturalistic Decision Making framework.[5] Klein Associates grew to 37 people by the time he sold it to Applied Research Associates (ARA) in 2005.

During this third phase, Dr. Klein developed a Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model in 1985 to describe how people actually make decisions in natural settings. This research was subsequently incorporated in Army doctrine for command and control.[6] He presented a PreMortem method of risk assessment in 1998.[7] In 2007 he developed a naturalistic model of sensemaking, the Data/Frame model. In 2009 he presented a Management by Discovery account of how people plan when faced with ill-defined goals. He described a multi-path model of insight in 2011. He has led teams that developed several methods of cognitive task analysis for uncovering the tacit knowledge that goes into decision making and for studying cognition in complex settings, including the Critical Decision Method and the Knowledge Audit. He was one of the leaders of a team that redesigned the White House Situation Room.[8]

He is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 2008 he received the Jack A. Kraft Innovator Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.[9]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ "Academy Sharing Knowledge (ASK) Talks with Gary Klein". NASA. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  2. ↑ Breen, Bill. "What's Your Intuition?". Fast Company. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. ↑ Morris, Bob. "Gary Klein: an interview by Bob Morris". Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  4. ↑ "About Us: Gary Klein, Ph.D". MacroCognition. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  5. ↑ "Naturalistic Decision Making" (PDF). Human Factors.
  6. ↑ "Recognition Primed Decision Model" (PDF). United States Army.
  7. ↑ Brown, Paul. "Analyzing Failure Beforehand". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  8. ↑ "Gary Klein, Ph.D. Senior Scientist, MacroCognition LLC". Noblis.
  9. ↑ "Human Factors and Ergonomics Fellow Profile" (PDF). HFES. Retrieved 6 September 2012.

External links