PhD Student

Human error is a fundamental facet of human behaviour. It is normal part of moving through everyday life and work and occurs even in the most highly skilled or habitual behaviours. It is estimated that over two thirds of accidents and incidents have human error as a major cause. While the extent of human error involvement in accidents and incidents has been widely documented throughout the world, knowledge about the actual nature and causes of human error is poor, with only a handful of systematic studies worldwide.

The purpose of my research is to investigate the nature skill-based errors in terms of its nature and causes. Specifically, my research seeks to test theoretical predictions about the role of distraction as a major source of error in a well-practice task. In particular, I am testing James Reason's (1990) Attentional Check Theory and Botvinick & Plaut's (2004) differential predictions about tendency for a momentary distraction to lead to a subsequent error in skilled performance. It is hope that the findings from this research will contribute significantly to extending the literature on skill development and skilled processing more generally. Moreover, from a practical persective, this research will have crucial safety implications, in terms of the corrective actions required to prevent skill-based errors or at least to modify their adverse consequences.