Information Processing Flashcards
What is the first stage of information processing?
What is the purpose of this stage?
Which memory does it load?
ATTENDING;
Focuses on RELEVANT INFORMATION whilst FILTERING out UNNECESSARY INFORMATION;
Needs to be able to SWITCH to other ATTENTION SOURCES known as CONCENTRATION and can be SELECTIVE, SHIFTABLE and DIVISIBLE;
Interacts with WORKLOAD and SITUATIONAL AWARENESS to load the WORKING MEMORY
Why do we need to divide attention in aviation?
Give an example?
To achieve MULTIPLE TASKS also called TIME-SHARING;
While MONITORING ATTITUDE and FLIGHT PATH, may need to also RAISE FLAPS
What effects does stress have on concentration?
Give some examples?
SIMPLE TASKS become very COMPLEX as the brain is OVERWHELMED;
MISSING CALLS from ATC or FORGETTING STANDARD PROCEDURES
What is an example of an aviation accident where attention was one of the contributing factors?
EASTERN AIRLINES 401;
All pilots FIXATED on getting the landing gear LIGHT to ILLUMINATE, decide to stay at 2000ft but do NOT ACTIVATE AUTOPILOT CORRECTLY, MISS ALTITUDE ALERTS, DESCEND into the GROUND
What is the cocktail party effect?
When can it relate to aviation?
You may be in a DEEP CONVERSATION or BUSY ENVIRONMENT and still HEAR your NAME being spoken somewhere else NEARBY;
Can be experienced in DENSE AIR TRAFFIC and HEARING your CALL SIGN
What is the startle effect?
How can the effects be reduced?
What is an aviation related example of this?
A sudden UNEXPECTED EVENT that CAUSES the pilot to experience UNCONTROLLABLE, AUTOMATIC REFLEX both PHYSICAL and MENTAL;
MAINTAINING effective SITUATIONAL AWARENESS;
US Airways 1549 (Hudson River)
What is perception?
An ACTIVE PROCESS where you begin to INTERPRET and ORGANISE the SENSORY DATA and SEND small amount of PERTINENT DATA to the SHORT TERM MEMORY/WORKING MEMORY
What are the perception abnormalities?
Give an aviation related example for each?
HALLUCINATIONS: FALSE PERCEPTION of SOMETHING that is NOT THERE - ABNORMAL engine NOISE at NIGHT;
ILLUSIONS: FALSE PERCEPTION due to MISINTERPRETATION of the STIMULI - OPTICAL ILLUSIONS such as SLOPING GROUND or FLASE HORIZONS
What are the characteristics of short term/working memory?
Where the PROCESSING of INFORMATION occurs;
LIMITED CAPACITY but allows INFORMATION to be HELD TEMPORARILY for PROCESSING;
DURATION is SHORT TERM and lasts about 30 seconds;
RECEIVES input from SENSORY MEMORY;
RETRIEVAL from LONG TERM MEMORY
How many items can the short term memory usually store?
What factors affect this?
7 +/- 2 ITEMS;
Can REDUCE under conditions of STRESS, FATIGUE, or DISTRACTION
How can the capacity of the short term memory be increased?
GROUPING/CHUNKING information; MNEMONICS (IMSAFE); ASSOCIATION; CARDS; ROTE; Saying WRITTEN instruction ALOUD; VISUALISE the WORDS or NUMBERS
What are the characteristics of long term memory?
Where INFORMATION is FILED for later use;
CAPACITY is practically UNLIMITED;
DURATION is said to be UNLIMITED however there may be DELAYS in RETRIEVING INFORMATION;
Brain will ASSOCIATE NEW DATA that is sensed with what is ALREADY STORED;
NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE
How is the long term memory divided?
IMPLICIT MEMORIES (PROCEDURAL): MOTOR SKILL memory; EXPLICIT MEMORIES (DECLARATIVE): SEMANTIC and EPISODIC memory
What are the characteristics of the motor skills memory?
Where SKILLS are stored: RIDING BIKE, TYING SHOE LACE etc;
HARD to TEACH;
REPETITION required to EMBED
What are the characteristics of the semantic memory?
The MEANING memory of the LONG TERM memory;
INFORMATION is stored in WORDS and includes the MEANING and USE of LANGUAGE: PHONE NUMBERS, CHECKLISTS etc;
NEW MATERIAL being learned needs FULL ATTENTION;
LEARNING in SITUATION helps with ENCODING and later RETRIEVAL through VISUALISATION: CHECKLIST in COCKPIT;
If NEW information is UNDERSTOOD it can often be retrieved by LOGIC
