A new facet of category theory: cognitive disadvantage and its implications for safety in the cockpit

The typicality effect suggests typical category members provide a cognitive advantage, such as being quicker and easier to recognise and describe. The reverse effect has not been explored in an applied environment. Non-typical flight safety events appear to pose problems for pilots, leading to delayed recognition and ineffective use of checklists. Fifty-six airline pilots completed an experiment that tested a real-world typicality gradient, comparing pilot performance on a group of four non-typical events against four randomly selected events. Non-typical flight safety events elicited a greater number of response errors and a greater response latency when compared with a random selection of safety events. We specify and measure cognitive disadvantage and suggest innovations in pilot education, such as locating troublesome events and improving recognition guidance. Our new findings can be used to better prepare pilots for event diversity and inform safety in other work systems of interest to ergonomics. Practitioner summary: Typical safety events in work environments provide a cognitive dividend, supporting effective recognition and response. In this study, we frame and measure the opposite effect, the cognitive disadvantages of non-typical events. Non-typical events pose significant risk in work systems such as air transport, and we suggest innovations in pilot knowledge and training that make use of this approach.