1. Critical Thinking An Introduction to Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Reviewer's references:
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular ( AC) 60-22, Aeronautical Decision Making
U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) CAP737, Crew Resource Management (CRM) Training
U.K. CAA CAP 719, Fundamental HF Concepts (ICAO Digest No 1)
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Human Factors Training Manual
ESSAI - Enhancing Safety through Situation Awareness Integration in training; European research project.
Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Flight Safety Australia, Situation Awareness, November 1998
Australian CASA Flight Safety Australia, Mental Is Everything, March-April 2001
New Zealand CAA Vector, Airmanship Situation Awareness, January-February 2003
GuidelinesfFor Situation Awareness Training. Carolyn Prince
Situational Awareness, Key Component of Safe Flight, Constance Bovier
Managing Situation Awareness on the Flight Deck or the Next Best Thing to a Crystal Ball. Sheryl L. Chappell, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA)
Defining Critical Thinking. Michael Scriven and Richard Paul
Evaluating Critical Thinking Skills. <
Developing Thinking Skills: Critical Thinking at the Army Management Staff College.   Roy Eichhorn
Habits of the Mind. Susan Alvarado
Critical Thinking in Everyday Life. <
The Memory Key. Fiona McPherson
Beyond Feelings. Vincent Rugirio
Working Memory. Brian T. Wilson, Atlantic Southeast Airlines
<
Graphic credit: Airbus
Thinking about thinking
This presentation provides an overview of how to improve critical thinking. It is intended to enhance the reader's awareness but it shall not supersede the applicable regulations or airline's operational documentation; should any deviation appear between this presentation and the airline’s AFM / (M)MEL / FCOM / QRH / FCTM, the latter shall prevail at all times.

2. Introduction
This self-study guide provides advice on how to improve your thinking and introduces the associated aspects of situational awareness and decision making. These subjects are essential processes in threat and error management, which must be used in daily operations. Thinking is the core skill in these activities; critical thinking involves controlling our thinking; thinking about our own thinking.
The guide is in five sections:
Threat and Error Management
Situational Awareness
Decision Making
Critical Thinking
Thinking — Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Probable cause in 80% of accidents (NTSB):
Unprofessional attitude, 47%
Pilot technique/decision making. 26%
Visual perception – situation misjudgement, 19%
U.K. CAA CAP 681 Global Fatal Accident Review
The most frequently identified causal factors in the 589 fatal accidents were:
1) Lack of positional awareness in air, 244 (41.4%)
2) Omission of action/inappropriate action, 216 (36.7%)
3) Flight handling, 177 (30.1%)
4) Poor professional judgement/airmanship, 134 (22.8%)
5) Slow and/or low on approach, 113 (19.2%)
6) Failure in Crew Resource Management (CRM), 101 (17.1%)
7) Press-on-itis, 97 (16.5%)
8) Deliberate non-adherence to procedures, 72 (12.2%)
9) Design shortcomings, 67 (11.4%)
10) Post crash fire, 63 (10.7%)
Note: The factors are not mutually exclusive as each accident generally involves more than one factor.
It is interesting to note that the 8 most frequently identified causal factors (including primary) belonged to the Crew group.
Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or downright prejudiced. Yet, the quality of our life — and that of what we produce, make or build — depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.
Speaker’s notes provide additional information, they can be selected by clicking the right mouse button, select Screen, select Speakers notes.
This presentation can be printed in the notes format to provide a personal reference document.

3. Threat and Error Management
Threat and error management (TEM) is a major safety process in aviation.
TEM consists of detecting, avoiding or trapping threats and errors that challenge safe operations. Where threats and errors are not contained, the resulting conditions must be managed and their adverse effects reduced.
All flight and ground operations
Threats
Errors
Undesired States
Detect
Avoid / Trap
Mitigate
Situational Awareness
“Threat management is managing your future.”
“Error msnagement is managing your past.” Don Gunther, Continental Airlines
Goals of threat and error management (TEM):
1. To create awareness and understanding of the risks and hazards.
2. To detect and warn of the presence of abnormal conditions or imminent dangers.
3. To protect people and the environment from injury and damage.
4. To recover from abnormal conditions and to restore the system to a safe state.
5. To contain the results of abnormal conditions or hazards.
6. To enable the potential victims to escape abnormal conditions or hazards.
TEM – data from LOSA (line operations safety audit):
72% of flights had at least one external threat; average two per flight
Terrain, weather, malfunction, ATC
64% of flights had at least one error; average two per flight
Incorrect settings, automation, monitoring
53% of errors had no pilot response
Situation awareness and decision making
Resist
Resolve
Recover
Decision Making
Plane
Path
People
Fly the aircraft, Navigate, Communicate, Manage

4. Situational Awareness
Situational awareness is having an accurate understanding of our surroundings — where we are, what happened, what is happening, what is changing and what could happen.
Good situational awareness requires:
Gathering data (sensing, perception), seeking cues in the environment
Assembling information to give understanding (comprehension)
Thinking ahead (projection)
Thinking about situational awareness involves:
Directing our attention to seek data; scanning a range of sources
Evaluating information without bias, for accuracy and relevance
Understanding, using our knowledge and previous experiences
Comparing and checking, visualizing future events — ‘What if?’
Planning ahead, considering possible outcomes
Situational awareness is the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors and conditions within the four fundamental risk elements (pilot, aircraft, environment, operation) that affect safety before, during and after the flight.
(U.S. Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] Advisory Circular [AC] 60-22)
There are increasing levels of situational awareness:
First, we have to see something
Second, we need to gain an understanding of what we see
Then, we must use what we have seen and understood by thinking ahead
Think about what you will be looking for; what is important at each stage of flight:
Focus on a broad region — keep the big picture
Focus on a narrow region — pay attention to detail
Focus on the right information — don't get sidetracked or distracted
Manage your attention
People
Path
Plane
Future
Now
Situation
SCAN
EVALUATE
ANTICIPATE
CONSIDER
Planning
Ahead
Gathering data
Understanding

5. Decision Making
Decision making involves assessment and choosing a course of action.
Decision making requires an understanding of the situation and controlled thinking.
The situation determines the urgency of the decision, risks and limits of action.
Controlled thinking:
Reduces risk
Moderates behavior
Manages time constraints
Uses knowledge; seeks options
Judges relevance and the quality of the choice
Prepares for action, evaluates the outcome or a future situation
T H I N K
O O D A
Observe
Orient
Deduce
Act
D E C I D E
Detect a change
Estimate significance
Choose a safe outcome
Identify possible actions
Do take action
Evaluate the result
GRADE
Gather Information
Review Information
Analyze Alternatives
Decide
Evaluate Outcome of Action
5 D
Detect
Determine
Decide Do
Discipline
Decision making is a systematic approach to the mental process used by pilots to consistently determine the best course of action in response to a given set of circumstances.
(FAA AC 60-22, Aeronautical Decision Making)
Decision making is a process that involves assessing the situation and then choosing a course of action (controlled thinking).
Situation assessment involves defining the problem and assessing the levels of risk associated with the situation and the amount of time available for solving the problem.
Once the problem is defined, a course of action must be chosen. The course of action is selected from the options applicable to the situation.
What we write or what we say reflects our thinking. Our behavior and reactions in most situations are governed by our thinking; thus, our behavior, actions, situation assessment and decision making can be adversely affected by previous thoughts, text or statements.
"Routine" flight operations are underemphasized. Yet, routine flight operations claim many more lives than abnormal or emergency operations.

6. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking provides the mental control and discipline required for situational assessment and decision making. It involves several skills that can be learned, practiced and improved.
Control your mind by:
Seeking and understanding information, facts and data
Effective planning, briefing and communication
Increasing knowledge; gaining experience
Learning within a context (situation)
Maintain discipline by:
Being aware of how you think; hazardous attitudes
Evaluating your actions; having self regulation
Being aware of all available resources
Being sensitive to feedback
Critical thinking is the skill of thinking about your thinking
Critical thinking is that mode of thinking — about any subject, content or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.
Hazardous attitudes:
Anti-Authority. This is the thought pattern found in people who resent the control of their actions by any outside authority. The general thought is: ‘Do not tell me! No one can tell me what to do.”
Impulsivity. This is the thought pattern found in people who, when facing a moment of decision, feel that they must do something, anything, and do it quickly. This thought is characterized in the student manual as: ‘Do something — quickly!”
Invulnerability. This is the thought pattern of people who feel that nothing disastrous could happen to them, personally, The thought is characterized in the student manual by the statement: “It won’t happen to me!”
Macho. This is the thought pattern of people who are always trying to prove that they are better than others; they “prove” themselves by taking risks and try to impress others by acting dangerously. The thought is characterized in the student manual by the statement: “I can do it.”
Out of Control. People who have this thought pattern feel that they can do very little, if anything, to control what happens. When things go well, it is attributed to good luck. When things go badly, it is attributed to bad luck, or it is generally the fault of someone else. This thought is characterized in the student manual by the question: “What’s the use?”
Critical thinking is the “quality control of the mind."
Critical thinking is the thinking that we must do ‘inside of the box’ before thinking ‘outside of the box.’
“Are we in charge of our thinking, or is our thinking in charge of us?“
Think inside the box before you think outside of the box
“Are we in charge of our thinking, or is our thinking in charge of us?“

7. Critical Thinking — Self awareness
Self awareness — self questioning, self monitoring
Am I biased in my thinking?
Have I made a plan for what I want to do?
Are my ideas or knowledge on this issue correct?
Am I aware of my thinking; what am I trying to do?
Am I using all of the resources for what I want to do?
Am I evaluating my thinking; what would I do differently next time?
Am I aware of how well I am doing; do I need to change my actions or intentions?
Monitoring is checking the quality or testing the accuracy of a situation
on a regular basis. It is keeping a close watch over
parameters and supervising the outcome.
It is checking for threats in our thinking.
Thinking Skills:
Interpretation – categorization, decoding, clarifying meaning
Analysis – examining ideas, identifying arguments, analyzing arguments
Evaluation – assessing claims, assessing arguments, self examination, self correction
Inference – querying claims, conjecturing alternatives, drawing conclusions
Explanation – stating results, justifying procedures, presenting arguments
Checking Purpose / objective
Ensure that the end objective is understood, what are we going to achieve
Seeking Information / facts / data
Relevant evidence should be sought, reliable and true, reported clearly. All data should be considered, data to address the purpose, to support and refute the evidence
Reasoning
Avoiding taking things for granted, checking the purpose is valid, the problem is solvable, the resources are available. Assumptions should be clearly stated and must be justified
Interpretation Using proven data to clarify the proposed solution or to justify your position, checking for contradictions. Being consistent, deep thinking, and clear
Points of view
Understanding your view, how was it developed, background knowledge, experience, does it make sense. Acknowledging that similar and opposing points of view exist. Understanding and discussing opposing points of view
Conclusions / implications / consequences
Reasoning should lead somewhere! What are the consequences or implications of our reasoning?
What will happen if we take the course of action?
Are the implications, conclusions, and consequences realistic / valid?

8. Critical Thinking — Knowledge
Improving your thinking — Knowledge
About yourself
Commitment: to safety, not following feelings or preference
Positive attitudes: persistence, resourcefulness, learning from failure
Attention to detail: seeing the big picture, determining relevance, assessing risk
About the thinking processes
Knowing the facts necessary to do a task by seeking information
Knowing how to do a task, how to scan, understand and think ahead
Knowing why certain strategies work, when to use them, why one is better than another
Knowledge to control the thinking processes
Self evaluation: assessing current technical knowledge, setting objectives, selecting resources
Self regulation: checking progress; reviewing choices, procedures, objectives, resources
Planning: choosing and planning a path to the objective, using procedures
Valuable intellectual virtues — yourself:
Intellectual humility: Being aware of your knowledge, being sensitive to self-deception, bias, prejudice and a limiting viewpoint.
Intellectual courage: Being aware of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs or viewpoints on which you have strong negative emotions and may not have given serious thought.
Intellectual empathy: Being aware of the need to put yourself in the place of others in order to understand them. Being able to reconstruct accurately other people’s viewpoints and reasoning from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. (See the other person’s point of view.)
Intellectual integrity: Recognizing the need to be true to your thinking; being consistent in the standards applied; holding yourself to the same standards of evidence and proof as for your antagonists; to practice what is suggested for others; and to honestly admit errors and inconsistencies in your thought and action.
Intellectual perseverance: Being aware of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles and frustrations. Following rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; knowing the need to resist confusion and unanswered questions to achieve deeper understanding or insight.
Faith in reason: Having confidence that your interests and those around you are best served by open reasoning, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions. That people can learn to think for themselves, to form rational viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think coherently and logically, persuade each other by reason, and become reasonable persons, despite the obstacles in everyone’s character, personality or culture.
Fair-mindedness: Being aware of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one's own feelings or interests, or the feelings or interests of your co-workers, group, community or nation; this implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to your advantage or the advantage of your group (peer pressure).
Graphic credit: FAA
Planning is the process of thinking about what you will do in the event of something happening or not happening.

9. Critical Thinking — Habits
Improving your thinking — Habits
Changing our thinking habits requires effort; clear thinking is an essential
part of airmanship and has to be developed throughout our careers.
Unskilled: Basic training only provides those skills necessary to be safe.
Safe: Continuation training and experience enable an effective operation.
Effective: More technical knowledge, practiced skills and experience give an efficient operation.
Efficient: Skillful command in controlling the aircraft and team leadership move toward a precision operation.
Precision: An operator who has gained and maintains precise technical and non-technical skills as a result of great personal effort.
A well-cultivated critical thinker:
Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;
Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as required, knowing their assumptions, implications and practical consequences; and,
Communicates effectively with others in identifying solutions to complex problems.
Managing interruptions and distractions
Managing attention resource
Avoiding judgments which are influenced by what is typical, or
judgments based on what come easily to mind
judgments relying on what comes first
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less." – Lewis Carroll
Expert thinkers
Focus on central issues
Identify relevant information
Consider information on merit
Test and check the basis of their awareness and decisions

10. Critical Thinking — Personal briefing
Improving your thinking — Briefing
Before flight, self-briefing reinforces memory cues and knowledge, which aid the recall of information for use in situational assessment and decision making.
Know what, who, where and when to prioritize your attention
Always brief routine operations — repetition aids memory
Structure the briefing along the intended flight path
Visualize your actions (plane, path, people)
Consider the significant threats
Recall lessons from training
Refresh SOPs
Questions
Improving critical thinking:
Practice
Knowledge
Take a wide view
Consider several options
Be prepared to change your view/plan
Test the accuracy of information and ‘facts’
“The only situation you should talk yourself into is a safe one.”
Expertise is not only what you remember, it is how you remember information and how you will recall it.
Memory recall is quicker with facts in order — What, Who, Where, When (4 Ws)
Graphic credit: BAE Systems
Do not rush:
Your thoughts control your actions.

11. Critical Thinking — Personal debrief
Improving your thinking — Debrief
After each flight, consider the following points — Plus, Minus, Interesting
Plus:
What was good
What went according to plan
Minus:
What was not so good, and why
What didn’t you know; find the answer before the next flight
Interesting:
Have you changed the way you see things: threats, risks, people or procedures
What did you learn, why, and where did the information come from?
Will you share this with others; if not why not?
Anything for an air safety event report?
Any issues for confidential reporting?
Did you experience:
High workload
Poor attitudes
Biased opinions
Mismanaged time
Unanswered questions
‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ – George Santayana (quoted by Orville Wright)
Debriefing: (causes, effects, characteristics, etc.). Mood, emotion, stress, fatigue, ‘getting behind the aircraft,’ peer pressure, hazardous attitudes, ‘press-on-itis’, fixed mindset, reduced situation awareness, and times of confusion
Identify examples of good and bad thinking
Connect issues to training or prior knowledge
Compare/contrast with another flight/experience
Critique/evaluate judgment, apply this to a situation, scenario or case
What were you most satisfied with in how you worked?
When were you least satisfied? What skills did you use/need?
What do you feel that you improved? In what ways do you feel more capable?
What were the chief obstacles to being efficient? What will you do differently next time?
To improve you thinking, you might ask yourself questions like these:
When did I do my worst thinking today? When did I do my best?
What, in fact, did I think about today? Did I figure anything out?
Did I allow any negative thinking to frustrate me unnecessarily?
If I had to repeat today, what would I do differently? Why?
Did I do anything today to further my long-term goals?
Did I act in accordance with my own expressed values?
If I spent everyday this way for 10 years, would I at the end have accomplished something worthy of that time?
Skills to improve, queries to look up, things still to discover, procedures to reconfirm
Plus
Minus
Interesting
Debriefing

12. Thinking about Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Situational awareness and decision making depend on our ability to think.
Thinking enables humans to be very successful, but this ability also enables errors that, if not controlled, present risks in our daily activities.
All flight and ground operations
Value your ability, use it wisely
Threats
Errors
Undesired States
Attention resources
Decision Making
Situational
Awareness
Error: A mismatch between the perceived and actual situation
A mismatch between intended and actual outcomes of deciding to act.
What exactly is the situation/problem?
How can I put it into the form of a question?
How does it relate to my goals, purposes and needs?
State the problem as clearly and precisely as you can.
Study the initial information to clarify the “kind” of problem or situation that you are dealing with. Figure out what sorts of things you are going to have to do to solve it. (Sensing)
Distinguish problems over which you have some control from problems over which you have no control. Concentrating your efforts on those problems you can potentially solve. (Choice)
Figure out the information you need and actively seek that information. (Sensing)
Carefully analyze and interpret the information you collect, drawing what reasonable inferences you can. (Comparison)
Figure out your options for action. What can you do in the short term? In the long term?
Recognize your limitations as far as time and resources. (Comparison)
Evaluate your options, taking into account their advantages and disadvantages in the situation you are in. (Choice)
Adopt a safe strategic approach to the problem and follow through on that strategy. This may involve direct action or a carefully thought-through wait-and-see strategy.
When you act, monitor the implications of your action as they begin to emerge. Be ready at a moment’s notice to revise your actions if the situation requires it. (Monitor)
Be prepared to shift your plans or your analysis or statement of the problem, or all three, as more information about the problem becomes available to you.
Senses:
See
Hear
Touch
Smell
Taste
Action
Monitor
Feedback
Review
Response
Working memory
Long-term memory - knowledge, biases, beliefs
Pattern recognition
Comparison
Choice
Selection

13. Critical Thinking — for Situational Awareness
Critical thinking for situational awareness — seek information
Essential components:
Accuracy — Is the information true?
Clarity — Can the information be understood?
Precision — Seek detail to understand the situation.
Relevance — Is the information connected to the situation?
Depth — Does the information address the complexity of the situation?
Breadth — Are there other points of view or other ways to consider this situation?
Logic — Does your understanding of the situation make sense?
Whenever you do not understand something, ask yourself a question for clarification ?
“Situations are discovered, not created.”
Questions for any situation:
Origin of information:
How did you come to think this?
Can you remember the circumstances in which you formed this belief?
Supporting information:
Why do you believe this?
Do you have evidence for this?
What are some of the reasons why people believe this?
In believing this, aren't you assuming that such and such is true? Is that a sound assumption?
Conflict with other thoughts:
Some people might object to your understanding by saying . . .
How would you explain the situation to them?
What do you think of this contrasting view?
How would you answer the objection that . . .?
Implications and consequences:
What are the practical consequences of believing this?
What would we have to do to put it into action?
What follows from the view that . . .?
Is this consistent?
What does this imply?
Your description of a situation will depend on the clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, coherence, logic, depth, consistency, and fairness of your observations.

14. Critical Thinking — for Decision Making
Critical thinking for decision making — the choice of action
Essential components:
State the objective of the decision to be made
Identify information to be used in making the decision
Gather the evidence and information required to make a decision
Make a decision based on criteria (a safe outcome), information and risks
Ask what the evidence and information mean, considering the objective
Routine
Trained
For
Unusual
Novel
Situation
Knowledge
Skill
Rules
Needs
Uses
Requires
Think about the situation, compare with SOPs, training and previous experience
“We can’t solve problems with the same thinking that we used to create them.” – Albert Einstein
Proficient decision makers are skilled; they are able to recognize a large number of situations as familiar and to retrieve an appropriate response. In novel situations where no familiar pattern fits, proficient decision makers supplement recognition with processes that verify its results and correct problems.
In general, there are three types of options within decision making: rule-based, choice and creative.
For rule-based decisions, there is only one action required for a particular condition. Once the problem is recognized, the solution should be evident (e.g., engine failure).
Choice decisions involve several options with trade-offs between them (e.g., selecting alternative airports). The choice of a suitable option depends on the objectives of the operator, the flight and the circumstances.
Creative decisions relate to situations in which no suitable options are readily available. The decision maker must think about the situation to find a solution (e.g., using analogies to similar situations).
There are different reasons why pilots struggle with decision making: (G Klein)
Lack of experience, external pressures (time pressure, ambiguity), competing goals such as schedule versus safety
How can pilots be helped to make better decisions? By teaching them how to ask better questions — questions that are easier to answer and that are more productive. With ‘on the job training’ (e.g., during cruise the more experienced pilot shares his expertise with the less experienced pilot). By improving the process evaluation by training the "observers" to "evaluate" the decision making. By teaching mission planning: this is looking at the vulnerable parts of the flight and preparing alternatives.
Think about which SOP applies to the situation, compare with training
Almost automatic action; SOPs have been thought through during training

15. Critical Thinking Threat and Error Management Decision Making
Critical thinking is at the center of all safety processes and human activity.
Threat and Error
Management
Decision
Making
Situational
Awareness
Critical Thinking
Whenever you don’t understand something, ask yourself a question of clarification.
Whenever you are dealing with a complex problem, formulate the question you are trying to answer in several different ways:
Am I focused on the main problem or task? How is this connected? How is that connected? Does my information directly relate to the problem or task? Where do I need to focus my attention? Are we being diverted to unrelated matters? Am I failing to consider relevant viewpoints? How is your point relevant to the issue we are addressing? What facts are actually going to help us answer the question?
What considerations should be set aside? Does this truly bear on the question? How does it connect?
Questions you can ask to discipline your thinking:
What precise question are we trying to answer? Is that the best question to ask in this situation? Is there a more important issue we should be addressing? Does this question capture the real issue we are facing? What information do we need to answer the question? What conclusions seem justified in light of the facts? What is our point of view? Do we need to consider another? Is there another way to look at the question? What are some related questions we need to consider?
Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored and self-corrective thinking.

16. Information To print the Presenter Notes:
In Windows Explorer, change the presentation file extension from .pps to .ppt
Open the new ppt file and select File, Print, print what Notes Pages.
If the presentation seems to be running slowly, try one or more of the following:
Reduce the resolution for the slide show presentation display.
On the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show.
Under Performance, in the Slide show resolution box, click 640x480 in the list.
Note.  Changing resolution may cause the slide image to be slightly shifted. If this happens, either choose a different resolution or click Use Current Resolution.
Set the colour depth to 16 bit for optimal performance. For information on changing the number of colours displayed on your monitor, see Microsoft Windows Help.
On the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show. Under Performance, select the Use hardware graphics acceleration check box. If your computer has this capability, Office PowerPoint 2003 will attempt to use it.
Note.  If you notice performance problems with the slide show after you change this setting, turn off the option. Your computer may not have this capability.
Animations (PowerPoint Ver 2003 required). Download reader from
Animation performance will be much better with a video card that has Microsoft Direct 3D. (Direct 3D is a component of Microsoft DirectX, which is a set of advanced multimedia system services built into the Microsoft Windows operating system.) Many video card manufacturers take advantage of this technology; check with the documentation you received with your computer to find out if Direct 3D is supported.