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Regional Basic Professional Training Course in Korea

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<strong>Regional</strong> <strong>Basic</strong> <strong>Professional</strong> <strong>Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>Course</strong> (BPTC) on Nuclear Safety<br />

and when these failures cannot be attributed to the <strong>in</strong>tervention of some chance agency.<br />

As we have seen, a series of planned actions may fail to achieve their desired outcome<br />

because the actions did not go as planned or because the plan itself was <strong>in</strong>adequate. It is<br />

also possible that both types of error could occur with<strong>in</strong> the same sequence of plann<strong>in</strong>g,<br />

storage and execution. This dist<strong>in</strong>ction gives rise to two further work<strong>in</strong>g def<strong>in</strong>itions.<br />

Slips and lapses are errors which result from some failure <strong>in</strong> the execution and/or storage<br />

stage of an action sequence, regardless of whether or not the plan which guided them was<br />

adequate to achieve its objective.<br />

Whereas slips are potentially observable as externalized actions‐not‐as‐planned (slips of<br />

the tongue, slips of the pen, slips of action), the term lapse is generally reserved for more<br />

covert error forms, largely <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g failures of memory, that do not necessarily manifest<br />

themselves <strong>in</strong> actual behavior and may only be apparent to the person who experiences<br />

them.<br />

Mistakes may be def<strong>in</strong>ed as deficiencies or failures <strong>in</strong> the judgmental and/or <strong>in</strong>ferential<br />

processes <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> the selection of an objective or <strong>in</strong> the specification of the means to<br />

achieve it, irrespective of whether or not the actions directed by this decision‐scheme run<br />

accord<strong>in</strong>g to plan.<br />

It is evident from this def<strong>in</strong>ition that mistakes are likely to be more subtle, more complex<br />

and less well understood than slips. As a result, they generally constitute a far greater<br />

danger. By their nature, mistakes are also far harder to detect. Consciousness is<br />

specifically tuned to pick<strong>in</strong>g up departures of action from <strong>in</strong>tention, but mistakes can pass<br />

unnoticed for lengthy periods, and even when detected they sometimes rema<strong>in</strong> a matter of<br />

debate. Not only is the quality of the plan open to a diversity of op<strong>in</strong>ion, it is also<br />

someth<strong>in</strong>g that can be judged at two dist<strong>in</strong>ct stages: before and after it has been<br />

❙ 712 ❙

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