Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
works according to the trial and error principles: learning by finding
out what happens after the exposed behavior. This trial and error prin-
ciple is very effective in many parts of life, but in general, we don
t
want this to happen in safety management simply because we want to
exclude errors. Errors can easily lead to near hits and incidents. There
are some exceptions in which the principle of operant conditioning can
be used to some extent in safety management:
'
Deliberately creating situations in which things go wrong to create
sensitivity by giving others the opportunity to find out what can
happen. This strategy is only suitable if the possible risks are low
and the possible damage to a person and his environment can be
repaired easily. (Allowing a child to burn his hand once while touch-
ing the stove is a very effective way of teaching him not to touch it
again.)
Punishment teaches us what to avoid, but does not reinforce desired
alternatives.
Adding negative consequences, for example, punishing people who
have trespassed a safety boundary. Both a boss and his team can
play the role of punisher. Trespassing a safety boundary will later
be associated with higher risk sensitivity. We always have to take
into account that punishment teaches us
not
to perform a certain
behavior, but
t teach us what we actually should do.
Punishment can even reinforce undesirable behavior, for example,
learning that rules can only be trespassed when the boss is not pres-
ent. For this reason, it is strongly advised to use punishment as little
as possible in safety education.
it doesn
'
A much safer way of using operational conditioning is working with
simulations, for example, a plant or flight simulator or a dummy (a
plastic arm or an actor) in a hospital. Such a simulation can supply
feedback for many behavioral options and will be experienced as if
the situation is real. The more realistic a simulator is, the stronger
the learning effect and transfer of the lesson to real-life situations. A
simulator is the only way for a person to experience the outcome of
a certain behavior without the damaging effects that would be gen-
erated in real life. People using the simulator will incorporate the
feedback into their whole perception of the world as if the situation
