Randall Jamieson
Atticus Consulting Group LLC

Daniel Smilek
University of Waterloo

Despite evolving track and mechanical inspection and analytical systems, the underlying causes of human error in the rail transit industry is not well understood. In fact, human error-related train accidents/million miles have increased over the past 10 years. Using engaging demonstrations to illustrate cutting-edge scientific findings in the field of cognitive neuroscience, this presentation will provide an overview of the mechanisms of attention and perception with a special focus on “inattentional blindness,” the “vigilance decrement” and “satiation of search”, relevant to rail transit track and mechanical inspection errors/failures.