Exam Revision Flashcards
Components of the SHEL(L) model?
Software - the rules, procedures, spoken words etc., which are part and parcel of standard operating procedures
Hardware - the air traffic control suites, their configuration, controls and surfaces, displays and functional systems
Environment - the social and economic climate in which the ATC operates as well as the natural environment
Liveware - the human beings within the system
Focus of the SHEL(L) model?
The focus of this model is that errors occur due to the mismatch of interfaces between the components in the system.
By studying and apating the interfaces to the needs of the operator, errors can be manages or reduced.
SHEL(L) Component Relationships?
Liveware - Software
Liveware - Hardware
Liveware - Environment
Liveware - Liveware
Five competencies of Team Resource Management (TRM)
- Enhancing decision-making skills
- Developing effective interpersonal communication
- Developing leadership/followership abilities
- Engendering a ‘team’ concept for enhanced operational performance
- Dealing with stress
Cultural shells of the SHEL(L) model?
- Professional
- Organisational culture
- Safety culture
Five levels of the Reason model?
- Organisational Decision Makers
- Line Management
- Environmental Factors (including culture)
- Productive Activities (task related activities)
- Defences
Mechanism of Reason Model
Recognises that all components of the system can contribute to, and detract from, safe and effective operations.
Usually if their is a failure in one level, there are procedures and practices in another level thay will usually prevent the failure from escalating.
Latent conditions
Conditions associated with the task, environment or the people themselves that may have contributed to the human behaviour, as well as higher level organisational and system factors that may combine with local conditions and active failures to cause an accident.
Individual and Team Actions
Also called ‘unsafe acts.’ Errors or breaches which trigger the event. People may not necessarily know at the time that the action they are committing is at-risk or unsafe.
Active Failures
Errors or risky behaviours that have an immediate and adverse effect.
Barriers
Inadequate or absent defences.
The last lines of defence against an accident and are designed to catch the errors before they can escalate into incidents or accidents.
e.g.
- physical barriers
- alarms
- interlocks
- keys
- passwords
- protective equipment
- checklists
- rules and procedures
- emergency training
Most human error types are associated with?
Simple and complex tasks and human-machine interactions and are predictable in nature.
Human Error
Inadvertently doing other than what should have been done; a slip, lapse or a mistake
At-Risk Behaviour
A behavioural choice which increases risk, where risk is not recognised or mistakenly believed to be justified.
Reckless Behaviour
A behavioural choice to consciously disregard the substantial and unjustifiable risk
System Design: Barriers
A device (administrative or physical) installed to prevent the human error from occurring in the first place.
System Design: Recovery
Refers to our ability to catch an upstream error or failure before it can lead to an adverse outcome.
Often this is achieved with the use of feedback, downstream tests, or checks.
System Design: Redundancy
The creation of multiple paths to allow success through a second path if the first path does not work.
The multiple paths can work in parallel so thay failure in one or more does not jeopardize the mission or goal.
Hypoxia
A condition in which a shortage of oxygen in the air being breathed affects the oxygen saturation or haemoglobin in the blood.
Hypoxia can occur quickly and the body ability to adapt to a low oxygen condition is poor when the onset is fast.
Symptoms of Hypoxia
- Behavioural changes
- Confusion
- Euphoria
- Innattentiveness
- Sense of well-being
- Confused thinking
- Apprehension
- Fatigue
- Belligerence
- Hyperventilation
- Mental confusion
- Poor judgment
- Unconsciousness
- Headache
- Slurred speech
- Tingling in the skin
- Changes in vision
- Dizziness
- Racing Heart
- Disorientation
Psychological factors that can affect human performance
- Stress
- Workload
- Fatigue
- Information processing and situational awareness
- Decision making and judgment
- Attention
- Vigilance
- Memory
Stress
A reaction that is initiated when a situation is evaluated as a threat and requires actions beyond an individuals normal operational intensity level.
Physical stressors
- pain
- hunger
- lack of sleep
- exhaustion
Environmental stressors
- noise
- pollution
- over-crowding
- excess heat
Common cause of stress in ATS staff?
Performance anxiety created by the individuals perception that their ability and that required of the system is different.
What can raise an individuals tolerance to stress?
Training and conditioning (practice)
Acute stress
Stress experienced across a short period of time from which complete recovery to a normal equilibrium is made.
Chronic stress
Ongoing constant stress
Types of stress
Eustress - positive stress. Motivates a person to cope with stressirs and allows a person to perform effectively and may even increase performance.
Distress - negative stress. Occurs when stimulation is excessive and causes fear of the situation, panic, anxiety or agitation. Usually results in poor performance
Anxiety - stress related to an unforeseen or imagined threat.
True or False. Extremely high levels of over arousal for short durations can lead to exhaustion.
True.
Health implications of chronic stress
- Stroke
- Heart disease
- Heart attack
Symptoms of chronic stress
- insomnia
- sleepy at inappropriate times
- fatigue
- lack of concentration
- poor memory
- tunnelling of senses
- physical problems
- emotional problems
- behavioural problems
Adaptive reactions to stress?
- Freezing - unable to react
- Flight - trying to escape the situation
- Fight - facing and working through the problem
Levels on the Yerkes-Dodson curve
- Sleep
- Boredom
- Mild alertness
- Optimal level
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Panic
The PIDA model
Perceive
Interpret
Decide
Act
Examples of stimuli recieved during perception
Visual - on screen information, scratchpad, weather briefing
Auditory - coordination, team member instruction, readback, alert/alarms
Sensory - input into the keyboard / mouse
Features to assist in maintaining situational awareness
Integrated and goal-oriented information presentation
Prominent system clues
Elimination of unneeded information
Reduced prominence of non-critical information
Factors which may cause perception errors
- Data not available
- Data hard to discriminate or detect
- Failure to monitor or observe
- Misperception of data
- Memory loss
Interpreting stage of information processing
We create a mental model of the total traffic or a specific scenario unfolding and what it will look like in the future
- priority of action
- perception of risk
- any change in mental model of traffic picture
- probable future state
Interpreting errors may occur through:
- lack of or incomplete mental model
- Use of incorrect mental model
- Prioritisation
- Biases (expectation/confirmation)
Expectation bias
We see/hear/believe what we expect to see or hear or believe should be there based on experience
Confirmation bias
An unconscious behaviour where we only look for information that will confirm our view of the world
Decision Making
Rather than make comparisons and then consider options in terms of the situations outcome, and experiences decision-maker will retrieve an appropriate response based on recognises a familiar situation.
Decision making, particularly in a highly complex and dynamic environment, needs practice.
The Act
Once a decision has been made a response is generated. During the response, several feedback loops are opened. The feedback is used to make comparisons with past memories to ascertain the response’s correctness.
True or False. Visual stimuli are more likely to divert our attention than auditory.
False. Auditory stimuli are more likely to divert our attention than do visual stimuli.
Hence sound is more likely to be responded to correctly than is visual information in times of stress.
Iconic memory
Visual sensory store.
Lasts between 0.5 & 1 second.
Echoic memory
Auditory information store
Last for between 2 and 8 seconds
Working memory
Also called short-term memory. Information stored into this memory remains only for a brief period - typically 8 to 12 seconds.
Techniques to assist in retaining information
Chunking
Rehearsing.
Working memory model.
Central executive - acts as a supervisory system and congrs the flow of information to and from its slave systems. Recall limit of 7+-2 items. Processing capacity of 4 interacting variables.
Phonological loop - stores audio information
Visuospatial - stores information about what we see
Episodic - link and stores integrated units of visual, spatial and verbal information with time sequencing.
Long term memory
Less dynamic than the working memory.
Contains strategic information. Information is input into the long term memory by repetition, rehearsal and active recall and manipulation of the information.
May store information in the form of schemes, models or prototypes.
Factors affecting attention and vigilance
- Time on task
- Signal frequency
- Environment/Noise
- Temperature
- Sleep loss
- Motivation
Complacency
A state of self-satisfaction with one’s own performance coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble or controversy.
Threat and Error Management
TEM is an overarching safety concept regarding aviation operations and human performance.
A conceptual model thay assists in understanding, from an operational perspective the inter-relationship between safety and human performance in dynamic and challenging operational contexts.
Components of the TEM framework
Threats - events or errors that occur beyond the influence of the line personnel, increase operational complexity, and which just be managed to maintain the margins of safety.
Errors - actions or inactions by the line personnel that lead to deviations from organisational or operational intentions or expectations
Undesired states - Operational conditions where an unintended situation results in a reduction in margins of safety. Often considered the last stage before and accident or incident
Hypoxia - Time of Useful Consciousness
15000 - 30min+
18000 - 20-30 min
22000 - 5-10 min
25000 - 3-5 min
28000 - 2.5-3 min
30000 - 1-3 min
35000 - 30-60 seconds
40000 - 15-20 seconds
45000 - 9-15 seconds
50000 - 6-9 seconds
Components of ATS Human Performance Model
- Operational Environment
- Operator Interface
- Operator
- Individual Factors
- Outcomes
Factors affecting vision
- Ambient light
- Age
- Transition time between environments with high/low ambient lighting
- intensity of colour
- Medication
- Orientation
- Smoking
- Diet
- Sunglasses
For pilots
- field of vision from cockpit
- contrast of aircraft against background
- glare of the sun
- atmospheric conditions
Factors affecting hearing
- any sound over 80dB may be hazardous
- age
- Ambient noise
- distraction
- alerts/alarms
- pilot/controller accent
Three types of memory in long term memory.
- Episodic
- Procedural
- Semantic
Vigilance
An individuals ability to pay close and continuous attention to a field of stimulation for a period of time, watchful for any particular changing circumstances.
Trust in automation quadrants
- Over trusting (trust high/system reliability low)
- Correct trust (trust high/system reliability high)
- Correct distrust (trust low/system reliability low)
- Under trusting (trust low/system reliability low)
Prospective memory
The ability to hold a list of tasks that must be done some time in the future. The internal alarm that alerts the operator to the fact that there are outstanding tasks requiring action.
System support tools
- Detection support tools
- Decision support tools
- Monitoring support tools
Detection support tools
Help the operator identify threats errors or issues in situations where they may not have detected them on their own.
Examples:
- Predicted level mismatch
- STCA
- Aerodrome ground surveillance system
- Alarms
- Other operators and pilots
Decision support tools
Help reduce the cognitive effort associated with complex calculations and assessments.
Examples:
- calculators
- lateral conflict tool
- time of passing tool
- bearing and range line
- tower situational awareness display
Monitoring support tools
Provide information to assist the operator in ensuring their plans are appropriate, correctly executed and sufficient to ensure safety
Examples:
- another controller sighting an aircraft
- short route probe
- velocity vector
- individual quick look
- pilot report
