Flight Cognition Laboratory

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Flight Cognition - Hot Topics

Combining our interests in aviation and medical operations, safety, skilled performance and cognitive psychology, we will from time to time post a “hot topic” of cross-disciplinary interest. This will be a short (1 to 4 pages) discussion of research ideas or operational issues.

Our goal in posting a "hot topic" is to gather perspectives from our broad readership and to foster an ongoing discussion about issues and questions involving cognitive processes in real-world settings such as aviation operations. Hot topics may range from a theory of prospective memory, to practical countermeasures that may help individuals remember to perform deferred tasks, to the ways that concurrent task demands affect human performance. We hope that the aviation and medical communities will find these discussions useful in understanding how cognitive processes affect aviation operations, and we hope that these discussions will help cognitive scientists understand operational issues to which their work might contribute.

We invite your thoughtful feedback and comments on each hot topic when it appears, and we encourage you to submit opinions, anecdotes, personal experiences, and ideas that relate to each topic. The author of each article will compile a summary of the responses received and post it under that article before the next hot topic is presented. At the bottom of each article will be a link that will allow you to email your response.

If you wish to be notified when a new article is posted, please enter your email address here. Your address will be kept strictly confidential.

Can Aviation-Style Checklists Work in Medical Settings? - 8/3/2017

Checklists, ubiquitous in high-stakes work domains such as aviation, are increasingly being adopted across diverse medical specialties and settings. Despite the general success of checklists in aviation, researchers and practitioners are discovering that checklist efficacy is not as high as hoped for within medicine (Prielipp & Coursin, 2015, Grigg, 2015). One of the reasons for this is a mis-match between the checklist and the medical setting in which it is used.

Medical checklists were initially developed as a way to copy the success of aviation checklists in improving flight safety (Bloomstone, 2015; Gawande, 2010; Thomassen et al., 2011; Hales & Pronovost, 2006); consequently, the designs of many medical checklists mirror that used in aviation. However, this makes them less effective, more cumbersome, and less likely to be accepted by medical personnel because the two work domains have different task structures, team responsibilities, and environmental settings.

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Previous Hot Topics -

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Flight Path Monitoring: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (11/1/2016)

Download Powerpoint (33.49 MB)

Checklists for Un-alerted Smoke, Fire, or Fumes (6/14/2016)

Burian, B.K. (2016). Integrated Checklists for un-alerted smoke, fire, and fumes: Adherence to guidance from the industry. NASA Technical Memorandum (NASA TM-2016-219109) Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center. (PDF - 237 KB)

Performance Data Errors in Air Carrier Operations: Causes and Countermeasures (7/31/2012)

Berman, B.A., Dismukes, R.K., & Jobe, K.K. (2012). Performance Data Errors in Air Carrier Operations: Causes and Countermeasures. NASA Technical Memorandum (NASA TM-2012-216007) Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center (PDF - 674 KB)

Change is in the Air (11/1/2011)

Download PDF (36 KB)

Remembrance of things future: Prospective memory in laboratory, workplace, and everyday settings (12/7/2010)

Dismukes, R. K. (2010). Remembrance of things future: Prospective memory in laboratory, workplace, and everyday settings. In D. H. Harris (Ed), Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 6, 79-122. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (PDF - 73.2 KB)

Checklists and Monitoring in the Cockpit: Why Crucial Defenses Sometimes Fail (11/9/2010)

Dismukes, R.K. & Berman, B. (2010). Checklists and monitoring in the cockpit: Why crucial defenses sometimes fail. NASA Technical Memorandum (NASA TM-2010-216396). Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center (PDF - 348 KB)

Human Factors Analysis of the Navigational Reference System (7/7/2010)

Burian, B. K., Pruchnicki, S., Christopher, B. (2010). Human factors evaluation of the implementation of the navigation reference system (NRS), Phase 1 Final Report. Technical Report (PDF - 1.1 MB)

Air Traffic Controllers do it too! (3/17/2010)

Loukopoulos, L. (2010). Air traffic controllers do it too! Hindsight, a journal of Eurocontrol, 48-51 (PDF - 2.2 MB)

The Effects of Life-Stress on Pilot Performance (7/6/09)

Young, J. A. (2008). The effects of life-stress on pilot performance. (NASA Technical Memorandum 215375). Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center (PDF - 352 KB)

Deconstructing the Myth of Multi-tasking (5/19/09)

Loukopoulos, L. D., Dismukes, R. K., & Barshi, I. (2009). The multitasking myth: Handling complexity in real-world operations. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. (Ashgate Link- Paperback, Ashgate Link- Hard Cover, Book Reviews)

Human error or system error: Are we committed to managing it?

Dismukes, R. K. (March, 2009). Human error or system error: Are we committed to managing it? Presented at the 2009 Aviation Human Factors Conference, Dallas, TX (PDF - 8.9 MB)

Challenges for the Very Light Jet Industry

Burian, B. K. & Dismukes, R. K. (2007). Training the VLJ pilot. Unpublished Manuscript.

The Challenge of Aviation Emergency and Abnormal Situations

The Challenge of Aviation Emergency & Abnormal sits should link to Burian, B. K., Barshi, I., & Dismukes, R. K. (2005). The challenges of aviation emergency and abnormal situations (NASA Technical Memorandum 2005-213462). Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center (PDF - 128 KB)

It's Human Nature (PDF version) - by Loukia Loukopoulos, posted on 4/22/04

The Limits of Expertise: The Misunderstood Role of Pilot Error in Airline Accidents (Powerpoint - 108KB)

Dismukes, R. K., Berman, B. A., & Loukopoulos, L. D. (2007). The Limits of expertise: Rethinking pilot error and the causes of airline accidents. Burlington, VT: Ashgate (Book Reviews)

Hot Topic: Prospective Memory, Concurrent Task Management, and Pilot Error

Dismukes, R. K. & Nowinski, J. L. (2006). Prospective memory, concurrent task management, and pilot error. In A. Kramer, D. Wiegmann, & A. Kirlik (Eds.) Attention: From Theory to Practice. New York: Oxford University Press (PDF- 148 KB)