PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AF447 final crew conversation - Thread No. 1
Old 23rd Oct 2011, 20:05
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mercurydancer
 
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AH yes - human factors. I'm not a pilot but have a fair degree of experience in human factors (including the army - for which I will comment on)

Everyone has cognitive bias. It is what enables you to make a decision to cross a road or buy a pie. Mentally we prioritise inputs (not information, which is processed data) and select. Its not in itself a problem unless the parameters get squeezed, such as the need to achieve a goal against the lethality of getting it wrong. If I want to cross a road I am usually going to wait until the traffic has a gap long enough to cross safely. If my wife is being attacked on the other side of the street I may change my parameters rather drastically, and run in front of traffic I wouldnt have done if the need wasnt so pressing. That is not to say that cognitive bias isnt powerful- some people adhere to concepts way beyond dispassionate argument. I just dont think that to label a situation as "cognitive bias" gets anywhere near the state of mind of the flight crew.

I suspect that the complexity of the pressures of cognitive input squeezed by the absolute need to keep the aircraft flying makes the description of "cognitive bias" a little stretched.

I also feel that some physical effects would affect the crew. I imagine that the aircraft was being bounced around a bit, with its corresponding effect upon mental processes irrespective of bias. If I cannot see clearly an instrument because I am being shaken around I will be slower to assimilate the data and process it.

The example of the army briefing had its own bias. Essentially it had little to do with psychology but to information flow - any senior commander could reach a better decision if he had the time or resources to question a source of data. To rely on a single direction of a stream of information (ie a NCO briefing to a CO) is always going to be less effective than being able to engage in a two way exchange of information.
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