Gary A. Klein

Gary Klein (born February 5, 1944 in New York, NY) is a research psychologist famous for his work in pioneering the field of naturalistic decision making. By studying experts such as firefighters in their natural environment, he discovered that laboratory models of decision making couldn’t describe decision-making under uncertainty. His Recognition Primed Decision (RPD) model has influenced changes in the ways the Marines and Army train their officers to make decisions. He has also developed methods such as Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) to gather data in complex domains. 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). Currently, he is Chief Scientist at Klein Associates in Fairborn, Ohio.