BASIC PSYCHOLOGY

PPL

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 THE INFORMATION PROCESS
 Basic Information Processing
 The process of thought and decision making
achieved by electrochemical currents within
the brain
 There is need to build a functional model of
the various stages of our reasoning. These are:
 Detection (information is received).
 Perception.
 Decisions are taken.
 Action (responses are selected and executed).
 Feedback.

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 STIMULI
 The senses, sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch provide inputs
(stimuli) to our brain.
 Most stimuli read for a brief time after the input has finished.

 PERCEPTION
 involves the conversion of the sensory information received into
a meaningful structure.

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
ATTENTION MECHANISM
 The reason for the attention mechanisms is because of the two potentially
limiting stages in processing information:
 The limit to the number of items held or maintained in short-term memory
(sometimes known as working memory).
ATTENTION
 Process of directing and focusing psychological resources to enhance
perception, performance and mental experience. It has three
characteristics:
 improves mental processing.
 requires effort.
 is limited.
 There are two types of attention:
 Selective Attention
 inputs sampled continually to decide their relevance to the present task at hand, our
names or callsigns being particularly attention getting.
 Divided Attention
 our central decision making channel can time-share between a number of tasks

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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 MEMORY
 Vital link between the student learning/retaining
information and the cognitive process of applying what is
learned.
 Ability of people and other organisms to encode (initial
perception and registration of information), store
(retention of encoded information over time), and retrieve
(processes involved in using stored information)
information
 Although there is no universal agreement of how memory
works, a widely accepted model has three components:
 sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 There are three types of memory:
 Sensory memories (sometimes referred to as ultra short-term
memories).
 Short-term (working) memory.
 Long-term Memory.
 SENSORY MEMORY
 Sensory Memory for Sound - The Echoic Memory
 The longest lasting sensory store is the echoic memory
 Can last for between 2 and 8 seconds.
 Retains sounds and, for example, it is possible to recall the
chimes of a clock that have struck
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 Sensory Memory for Sight - The Iconic Memory
 The visual sensory store and only lasts for between 0.5
and 1 second.
 80% of information processed by man enters the visual
channel.
 Sensory Adaption (Habituation)
 Adapt either partially or completely to their stimuli
after a period of time.
 When a continuous stimulus first applied
 the receptors respond at a very high impulse rate at first, then
 progressively less rapidly until finally many of them no longer
respond at all
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 SHORT TERM MEMORY
 The attention mechanism select what information
passed to the short-term memory.
 Enables information to be retained for a short period
of time and will be
 lost in 10 to 20 seconds unless it is actively rehearsed
and deliberately placed in our long-term memory.
 Limitations of Short-term Memory
 The capacity of our short-term memory is limited.
 The maximum number of unrelated items which can
be maintained is about 7 ± 2.
 Once this limit is exceeded one or more of the items
are likely to be lost or transposed.
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 LONG TERM MEMORY
 Introduction
 Information in the short term memory rehearsed,
 it will be transferred into the long-term memory.
 Information stored in the long-term memory for an unlimited time
period although frequently there are retrieval problems.
 The long term memory information can be classified into three
types:
 Semantic memory.
 Episodic memory.
 Procedural memory (motor programmes).
 Semantic Memory
 Stores general knowledge of the world, storing information to such
questions as: Are fish minerals? Do birds fly? Do cars have legs
 Episodic Memory
 Episodic Memory is a memory of events or ‘episodes’ in our life; a
particular flight, meeting, or incident.
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 INFORMATION PROCESSING, HUMAN ERROR
AND THE LEARNING PROCESS cont..
 MOTOR PROGRAMES
 “skills”(sometimes referred to as procedural memory), are
behavioural sub-routines
 learnt by practice and/or repetition and are held within the
long term memory and can be carried out without
conscious thought.
 A skill is an organized and coordinated pattern of activity. It
may be physical, social, linguistic or intellectual.
 Developing Motor Programmes
 To develop a motor programme or skill, there are three
distinct phases:
 The cognitive phase in which the learner thinks consciously about
each individual action.
 The associative phase in which the separate components of the
overall action become integrated.
 The automatic phase when the total manoeuvre can be executed
smoothly without conscious control.
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 NERVOUS SYSTEM
 This is a complex network of nerves and cells
 carry messages to and from the brain and spinal cord
to various parts of the body.
 includes the
 Central nervous system,
 Autonomic nervous system and
 Peripheral nervous system.
 The Central nervous system is made
 brain and spinal cord and
 The Peripheral nervous system is made
 Somatic and the Autonomic nervous systems.

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 NERVOUS SYSTEM
 CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (CNS)
 Responsible for issuing nerve impulses and analysing sensory
data.
 It consists of the brain and the spinal cord.
 The brain weighs an average of 1.4 kg and comprises 97% of the
entire nervous system.
 Nerve pathways extend from the brain to virtually every tissue
and structure of the body.
 PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (PNS)
 Made up of a series of specialised cells that both pass information
received from the body organs and muscles back to the CNS
through sensory nerves.
 It also is responsible for passing information from the CNS
directly to the organs and muscles themselves through motor
nerves.

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 NERVOUS SYSTEM
 AUTONOMIC (VEGETATIVE) NERVOUS SYSTEM (ANS)
 Manages the glands of the body and the involuntary
muscles of the internal organs and blood vessels.
 The Sense Organs
 Most important of our senses in aviation are sight and
hearing.

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 LEARNING PROCESSES
 Types of Learning
 Classical/Operant Conditioning.
 This is the behaviouristic approach of Pavlov where the recipient is taught
through, principally, physiological responses.
e.g. An experienced pilot’s reaction to a fire warning.
 Insight.
 The data is intellectually and cognitively understood and is retained.
e.g: A pilot setting up the on-board navigation equipment.
 Observational Learning/Imitation.
 The data from an outside source is replicated.
e.g: A student pilot following-through on the controls during an approach and
then executing the approach on his/her own shortly afterwards.
 Experience.
 Learning from our mistakes.
 Skill Learning.
 Observational learning, along with practice, plays an important role in the
learning of skills (motor programmes). It involves motivation, attention,
observation, much practice and corrective feedback.

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 KNOWLEDGE
 TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE
 Procedural knowledge – knowledge about how to perform
tasks
 Conditional knowledge – knowledge that guides a person
in using declarative an procedural knowledge

 MNEMONIC STRATEGIES
 Strategies for remembering non-meaningful information
by making it meaningful
 Acronyms
 Keyword strategy
 Pictorial mnemonics
 Method of loci
 Pegword mnemonics

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 STRESS
 Stress is commonly defined as the body’s responses to the demands
placed upon it. Life Stress Management
 Be knowledgeable about stress
 Take a realistic assessment of yourself
 Take a systematic approach to problem solving
 Develop a life style that will buffer you from the effects of stress
 Practice behavioral management techniques
 Establish and maintain a strong support network

 Cockpit Stress Management

 Avoid situations that distract you from flying the aircraft
 Reduce your workload
 In an emergency, remain calm

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STRESS MODEL
 PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS
•External
physiological
factors (noise,
temperature,
vibrations etc.),
sometimes known
as environmental
stress.

•Internal
physiological
factors (hunger,
fatigue, lack of
sleep etc.).

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 STRESS cont…
 Arousal and Performance
 Arousal defined as
 “the measure of the human being’s readiness to respond”.
 At low arousal levels
 such as just after waking or during extreme fatigue, the
attentional mechanism is not very active, processing of
sensory information is slow and the nervous system not fully
functioning.
 The individual will have a slow environmental scan and may
miss information.
 Thus performance is low.
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 STRESS cont…
 Arousal and Performance cont…
 At the optimal arousal level we are at our most
efficient –
 we have enough demands to keep our attention and the
capability to deal with complex tasks.
 At high arousal levels our performance starts to
deteriorate,
 errors are made and information may be missed.
 At very high arousal levels we experience overload as we
reach a limit of processing capacity and/or our ability to
complete all the tasks.
 At these high levels the attention mechanism can reject vital
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 PERSONAL FACTORS AFFECTING
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS cont..

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 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
 Situational awareness
 An attention based phenomenon reflecting the flightcrew's
knowledge of where the aircraft is in regard to location, air traffic
control, weather, regulations, aircraft status, and other factors
 It is accurate perception and understanding of all the
factors and conditions within the five fundamental risk
elements (flight, pilot, aircraft, environment, and type of
operation in any given aviation situation) that affect safety
before, during, and after the flight
 Forming a mental picture of your circumstances – e.g., why
is ATC vectoring you
 A lack of situational awareness
 Affects pilot's ability to perform effectively regarding aircraft
handling, aircraft systems, aircraft mode awareness,
environmental hazards, standard operating procedures, and
attention to required tasks

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 JUDGEMENT
 The process of analysis
 requires use of most skills, with proficiency in all, and
endless knowledge, particularly of the situation.
 Making a judgment is often a balance of risks, thus an
individual’s attitude to risk is a key element.
 Carelessness and overconfidence are usually much
more dangerous than the calculated acceptance of
risk.

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 JUDGEMENT
 Good airmanship based on sound judgment
involves the following order of priorities:
 Fly the aircraft — Check attitude, speed, altitude,
instruments and automation
 Navigate — Know where the aircraft is and where it is
going
 Communicate — Discuss and review the issues, share
tasks, back up each other
 Manage — Take follow-up action and use appropriate
levels of automation
 Monitor -take control when unexpected events occur

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 JUDGEMENT
Airmanship is:
 Founded on discipline (self, team, corporate)
 Continuously striving for self-improvement and optimal personal
performance
Airmanship requires:
 A wide range of perceptual-motor skills
 A wide range of cognitive skills
 A wide range of knowledge (self, aircraft, environment, risk)
 Appropriate attitudes

Airmanship can be developed through training

and refined through practice and experience.

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 DECISION ERRORS
Situational Factors The situations are not recognized as requiring a change of
course of action, due to the ambiguity of the cues resulting
in a poor representation or understanding of the situation
(poor situation awareness)

Erroneous risk perception & risk management
Goal conflicts
Pilots typically under-assess the level of threat or risk
associated with the situation, due to risk misperception or
tolerance to risk
Pilots may be willing to take a safety risk (an unlikely loss)
to arrive on time (a sure benefit). Social factors (for
instance to please passengers) can also play a role. Peer
pressure can encourage risky behavior.

Workload and stress Workload and stress may overload pilots, deteriorate
mental processes (i.e.: tunneling of attention or vision,
memory limitation, etc.) and lead to errors. As situations
degrade, risk and time pressure may increase up to a point
where making correct decisions becomes very difficult.
 BEHAVIOUR
 Jens Rasmussen,
 Danish ergonomics author, introduced a three
level activity control model in the 1980s.
 The ’SRK’ model, is particularly suitable for
explaining pilot’s learning techniques and their
actions.
 S = SKILL BASED BEHAVIOUR
 R = RULE BASED BEHAVIOUR
 K = KNOWLEDGE BASED BEHAVIOUR

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 CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR
 Skill-based Behaviour.
 Based on stored routines or motor programmes that have been
learned by practice and repetition and which may be executed
without conscious thought.
 Skill-based errors only occur in those with experience.
 Errors of this sort are more likely when he/she is preoccupied,
tired or when good conditions may have led to relaxation.
 Rule-based Behaviour.
 Behavior for which a routine or procedure has been learned.
 The rule-based behaviours would be to follow the set
procedures for correct preparation of the flight.

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 CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR cont..
 Errors of Rule-based Behaviour.
 Error of Commission.
 the most common error associated with Rule-Based
behaviour.
 caused by the initial mis-identification of a problem and
engaging the wrong procedure entirely
 Departure from the Rules.
 Errors may also arise when the pilot believes it is safe to
depart from the procedure.
 eg, aircraft have been flown into the ground when a GPWS
warning has been
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 CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR cont..
 Knowledge-based Behaviour.
 Behaviour is that for which no procedure has been learned.
 Requires the pilot to evaluate information,
 then use his knowledge and experience (airmanship) to design a plan for dealing
with the situation.

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 CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR cont..
 Errors of Knowledge-based Behaviour.
 Errors can take a wide variety of forms, none of which
are necessarily predictable on the basis of the
individual’s experience and knowledge level.
 However, some factors that may have a profound effect
are:
 Incomplete or inaccurate mental models. This can be due either to
ambiguous data or an incorrect association with incidents experienced in
the past.
 Over-confidence.
 Lack of situational awareness.
 Confirmation Bias.
 Frequency Bias (the tendency to call to mind frequently encountered
36 experiences or scenarios and applying these to an inappropriate situation.