Regional Basic Professional Training Course in Korea

C. Model of Slips
11. Human Performance: A Perspective on Human Factors
Figure 11.3 shows the graphical model of slips. The intention was good, the action is
wrong. This family of errors concerns all events where the analysts can say that the
person did not pay attention (carelessness). Slips occur when an action is not in
compliance with the intention because something occurred during the execution of
automatic actions (distractions, interruptions, multitasking, etc.). A good understanding
of the definition of automatic actions is very important here. Also, a detailed analysis of
the task has to be done during the root cause analysis in order to determine which part of
the task may contain unconscious, automatic actions.
What are the factors, which lead to automatic actions, possibly with disastrous
consequences?
Organizational conditions of work give more chance for these effects to be
produced: particularly, hyper‐specialization, excessive training for short‐cycle and
repetitive tasks, speed and output limitations that instill a need for increasingly
developed automation.
Technical conditions and Man Machine Interaction can introduce error conditions:
The absence of equipment standardization (a new item of equipment with a
mechanism, which invalidates the operator’s responses, although these were correct
for the old system);
Design of equipment that does not allow for sensory‐motor stereotypes, or the
properties of perception systems, or representation systems acquired by experience;
Management of experience: When a person acquires experience in doing a certain
task, the original "knowledge based" activities for performing the individual steps
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