Originally Posted by
BARKINGMAD
Perhaps if those in the industry might take some time out, particularly the designers of the kit which is confusing the operators so regularly (no particular type specific) to try reading "The Organized Mind" by Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin (as soon as it is published 2 days from now,if you want it Kindled).
If that task can be achieved, either before their next flight or before their next design, then we might be part-way down the road to reducing the rates of such tragic mishaps.
Listening to the author on BBC Radio 4 Monday 26th January at 0900Z (try pod-casting it?) it appeared that someone with knowledge of the brains of the species of advanced-level Bonobo Chimps, who design and operate the current airliner fleets, has cast light on the supreme arrogance of said Chimps and their (possibly) false confidence in their ability to multi-task and handle multiple information threads.
If I may quote: "The brain worked well enough for our Stone Age ancestors and has barely changed since then, during which it has been forced to absorb vastly more knowledge than ever before in human history. "
I await the incoming fire, yours truly, a retired Bonobo!
It is also an idea to look at the research on cognitive tunneling/cognitive narrowing/attentional tunneling and multiple cognitive resource theory. All of which, unfortunately, appear to have been disregarded in recent cockpit system integration.
Try reading the paragraph above and reciting a nursery rhyme - you can't do it - your brain only has one verbal analysis channel if someone speaks to you at the same time you may not even hear them - unless a trigger word like your name is part of what they say. If you are listening to an audible alert message with words in it - you will be unable to comprehend an ECAM alert saying something different or what the other crew member is saying. These are cognitive limitations to multitasking that all humans have.
This is the reason using cell phones while driving can be dangerous as if the caller starts describing the route to get somewhere and what to look out for... you start overloading the 'spatial analysis channel' in your brain and your brain start to imagine what is being described and stops seeing things in reality and following the road accurately and you may miss turnings and wander on the road.
In the cockpit if the system sensing a problem delivers a cacophony of alerts and messages plus the 'automation surprise' that something has stopped working properly 'that never fails', your brain will stop hearing things and/or stop being able to read and comprehend ECAM messages or what the other pilot is saying and will focus (cognitive tunnel) on one aspect of the environment and try to 'fix' that often to the exclusion of everything else.