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SBT has become one of the primary methods to teach today’s aviation learners how to make good aeronautical decisions which in$_{ }$ turn enhances the safety of all aviation related activities. For information on how to create an SBT lesson, refer to Chapter 5, The Teaching Process, and for how to incorporate SBT into a training syllabus, refer to Chapter 7, Planning Instructional Activity. 

## Perceptions 

Initially, all learning comes from perceptions, which are directed to the brain by one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Psychologists have also found that learning occurs most rapidly when information is received through more than one sense. [Figure 3-5] 

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Perception involves more than the reception of stimuli from the five senses; it also involves a person giving meaning to sensations. People base their actions on the way they believe things to be. The experienced AMT, for example, perceives an engine malfunction quite differently than does an inexperienced learner. This occurs because the beginning aviation learner is overwhelmed by stimuli and often focuses on meaningless things, thus missing key information. It is important for the instructor to direct trainee’s perceptions initially so that the learner detects and perceives relevant information. 

Real meaning comes only from within a person, even though the perceptions, which evoke these meanings, result from external stimuli. The meanings, which are derived from perceptions, are influenced not only by the individual’s experience, but also by many other factors. Knowledge of the factors that affect the perceptual process is very important to the aviation instructor because perceptions are the basis of all learning. 

## Factors that Affect Perception 

Both internal and external factors affect an individual’s ability to perceive:$_{ }$ 

⦁ $_{Physical organism }$ 

⦁ $_{Goals and values }$ 

⦁ $_{Self-concept }$ 

⦁ $_{Time and opportunity }$ 

⦁ $_{Element of threat }$ 

