Illusions of Explanation: A Critical Essay on Error Classification
Author(s)
Dekker, SWA
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2003
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Error classification methods are used throughout aviation to help understand and mitigate the causes of human error. However, many assumptions underlying error classification remain untested. For example, error is taken to mean different things, even within individual methods, and a close mapping is uncritically presumed between the quantity measured (errors)and the quality managed (safety). Further, error classifications can deepen investigative biases by merely relabeling error rather than explaining it. This article reviews such assumptions and proposes alternative solutions.Error classification methods are used throughout aviation to help understand and mitigate the causes of human error. However, many assumptions underlying error classification remain untested. For example, error is taken to mean different things, even within individual methods, and a close mapping is uncritically presumed between the quantity measured (errors)and the quality managed (safety). Further, error classifications can deepen investigative biases by merely relabeling error rather than explaining it. This article reviews such assumptions and proposes alternative solutions.
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Journal Title
International Journal of Aviation Psychology
Volume
13
Issue
2
Subject
Cognitive and computational psychology