Idea 2: Firefighting

The goal of this analysis is to discern differences in the mental models of an urban/suburban-based firefighter and a rural-based firefighter. The urban-based firefighter is a recently retired, 55-year-old male who served in the New York City Fire Department as well as the Houston Fire Department. The rural-based firefighter is a 25-year-old member of the New Caney Volunteer Fire Department in New Caney, TX – a predominately rural town. Because I only have direct access to one of the firefighters (the urban-based firefighter is my father), I’ll have to rely solely on interviews by phone or other forms of long-distance communication. I may use unstructured interviews with each firefighter separately to create a more focused interview that will be given to both. I may also ask each firefighter to diagram their mental model of a typical fire scene/training course/company hierarchy/etc. It may also be interesting to show each two videos (sent online): one of a building fire, and one of a grass/woods fire; I would then compare their descriptions of each. The information gathered would be used to discern which cognitive skills are typical of both and which are unique. (Note: One firefighter served for 37 years before recently retiring; the other has been a firefighter for 8 years. I made need to adjust this study so that it instead measures the mental models of an experienced vs. a novice firefighter.) Faryar Faramarzi