ABSTRACT
Rasmussen, Duncan, and Leplat caution us by suggesting that the immense variety of human errors that one observes may 'reflect complexity of the environment, rather than complexity in the psychological mechanisms involved'. A limitation in man's perceptual capability restricts the ability to perceive signals emanating from more than one sensory source at the same time. The consequences of error can be disastrous if careful attention and reliance is not placed on hard instrument data that is not susceptible to sensory interpretation. The human errors involved in air transport accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board classified each of the 302 errors that it identified in 37 major US air carrier accidents that occurred between 1978 through 1990. One of our most successful and prominent transports has over 400 bells, lights, whistles, and other aural or visual indicators. Each one conveys important information. With long term memory, both continuous attention and rehearsal are required for new information to be retained.
