Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Displaying on the spot signs/alerts (
“
Last year a serious accident
happened in this area, while
...
”
).
Adding anxiety-evoking warning stimuli when dangerous activi-
ties are taking place (for example, a special warning tone when a
truck is driving backward).
2. Sharing the colleage
'
s anxiety, making use of our ability to feel
what others feel (which will be discussed in Chapter 9). This can be
done by:
Expressing a personal concern for an activity or object, like a
warning (
I feel very uncomfortable when I see you doing this,
because
...
”
“
).
Sharing personal beliefs in the form of statements:
“
This plant is
only as safe as the way people handle it.
”
Case 1
Classical conditioning helps people develop sensitivity to many dangers
on the site, like the steps on the side platform, the heat from the
cooler, the squirting oil, and the open pipe.
Case 2
One of the main tasks of driving instructors is to create danger sensi-
tivity. Although most of us have experienced dangerous situations
while sitting in a car as a child, we only developed weak danger sensi-
tivity once we start our driving lessons. It is hard to sense the impact
of a specific action if we don
t fully understand the processes involved
in driving. Driving instructors will focus our attention to a specific
situation (a car leaving a parking spot, for example), and teach us
what might happen, where the possible risks are, and how we can
anticipate on each of these risks. The classical element is that instruc-
tors share their emotion connected to that specific circumstance, more
than rationally explaining the situation.
'
3.1.2 Operant Conditioning
The second way of learning is called operant conditioning. This princi-
ple was originally described by B. F. Skinner, who used hungry
pigeons to demonstrate that he could teach them within a period of an
hour to peck on a knob, just by rewarding every movement that went
in the direction of pecking that knob. This process is called shaping
and fully relies on the economic principle behind behavior. The basic
