The Human Factor

Three Mile Island stands out as one of the greatest U.S. tragedies, and possibly the first major disaster of the nuclear age. Being one of the first, and one of the most publicized reactor meltdowns in world history, it would be almost a decade before the disaster was overshadowed by that of Chernobyl.

Human Factors aims to better integrate humans and systems to increase effectiveness and safety, and to reduce errors and accidents.

Sometimes, these systems can be simple, such as a human using a pen; and sometimes they can be much more complex, such as the systems in place to launch shuttles and rockets into orbit. One principle that is often used in our field is called “Affordance.”

Affordances are defined as a quality of an object or environment that makes it obvious what that object or environments purpose or function is.

Superstitious behaviors, or the belief that supernatural forces have a causal effect on events, are prevalent throughout all human cultures.

But humans aren’t the only beings subject to this behavior. In fact, scientific research on superstitious behavior began accidentally with pigeons.

Eyewitness testimony is often highly regarded by juries and those who write television crime dramas.

Many people believe that their memory is infallible. Whatever they experience is recorded, frame by frame, like a movie, for later retrieval. Depending on one’s own personal history and past experiences, memories can in fact diverge significantly from the actual event.Anxiety, stress, and how questions are worded can conspire to create false memories.