Cognitive Engineering and Aviation Safety

Humans are a unique and vital component of aviation that can adapt their behavior in response to new circumstances. Some aspects of human behavior, such as reaction time to clearly defined tasks, can be modeled in isolation. Other aspects can be predicted as a response to their situation, in which they will adapt to maintain “control” and achieve the desired combined system performance. Cognitive engineering is the discipline of designing complex, safety-critical systems recognizing the need for good human performance. The design challenge is to properly enable humans' performance in situations both expected and unexpected. With the design of technology, procedures, and training to support their adaptation to the inherent dynamics of aviation operations, humans serve as the greatest contribution to safety. Conversely, in an inflexible system human dynamism becomes the source of error and faults. Thus, an important aspect of design is to both prevent predictable faults and to ensure the system has the flexibility by which humans can return things to right. This requires explicit choices in distributing responsibility for risk mitigation and safety between technology, operating procedures, and human performance, recognizing that automation brings with it risks that are increasingly difficult for human operators to handle.