Is ‘invisible gorilla’ self-reportedly measurable? Development and validation of a new questionnaire for measuring cognitive unsafe behaviors of front-line industrial workers

High-speed train drivers' human error under fatigue and stress: the role of situation awareness and individual differences

Fatigue and stress are critical variables that impair railway train drivers' safety performance, and individual differences may influence these effects. This study investigates how fatigue and stress affect high-speed train drivers' human error and the role of individual differences. We hypothesised that situation awareness (SA) mediates the effects of fatigue and stress on human error, and individual differences (age and work experience) moderate these effects. We surveyed 1,391 male drivers from eight Chinese railway bureaus and used PROCESS Macro for data analysis. The results revealed that fatigue and stress increased human error, directly and indirectly through SA. Age and work experience moderated the effect of fatigue and stress on SA, respectively. Older drivers had better SA under high fatigue, while more experienced drivers had better SA under high stress. These findings can inform more tailored safety management strategies to lower human error and enhance the safety of high-speed train operations.

The mediating effect of workers' situation awareness on the relationship between work-related factors and human error: a path analysis approach

Situation awareness is the main reason behind different patterns of unsafe behavior among workers and can play a mediating role in the relationship between predictive situational variables and human error. This questionnaire-based study carried out with Iranian workers investigated the direct and indirect effects of work pressure, mental workload, human-systems interaction and environmental distractions on three types of human error (i.e., slips, lapses and mistakes). The results of path analysis showed that, based on model fit indexes, the model is appropriately fit (χ² / df = 3, comparative fit index = 099, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.99, root mean square error of approximation = 026). It was also observed that the effects of four independent variables on all three types of human error are indirect and mediated by situation awareness. Consequently, it is confirmed that situation awareness plays a key role in the occurrence of human error and is a sharp-end causal factor for human error in industrial workplaces.