ACME Learning from other fields: human error

• Two kinds of human error

  1) slips/lapses: errors in execution
  
  2) mistakes: errors in planning

  • errors can be active (operator error) orlatent (design error, management error)

• Human errors are inevitable

  • “humans are furious pattern-matchers”

    • sometimes the match is wrong
  • cognitive strain leads brain to think up least-effort solutions first, even if wrong

• Humans can self-detect errors

  • about 75% of errors are immediately detected

Source: J. Reason, Human Error, Cambridge, 1990.

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