Alberta Basic Security Training (ABST) Practice Exam 2025

What is referred to as using your senses to collect information about a situation?

1. Intuition

2. Observation

3. Analysis

4. Feedback

The correct answer is: Observation

The concept of using your senses to gather information about a situation is known as observation. Observation involves actively noticing details about your environment, which can include visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and even gustatory elements. This skill is essential in security work, as effective observation allows personnel to understand circumstances, identify potential threats, and make informed decisions based on the real-time assessment of situations. Intuition refers to the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. While important, it does not specifically involve the systematic use of one's senses for information gathering. Analysis pertains to examining or dissecting information in detail to make sense of it, which occurs after information has already been collected. Feedback is the information returned from an action or decision, often used to improve future performance, rather than the initial process of gathering situational awareness. Thus, observation stands out as the correct answer because it is directly linked to the active process of using one's senses to perceive and interpret the environment around them.