Identification and analysis of cognitive errors during the process of man-machine interaction

System safety and performance could be degraded by human errors seriously. An approach for human error identification and description during the man-machine interaction process is presented. Firstly, a generic framework for identification and analysis of cognitive errors is designed, and a approach for classifying human errors is built. A general taxonomy of human errors is given in this approach. Secondly, various types of errors are searched guided by this taxonomy in each cognitive phase. The causes of these errors are analyzed within one general framework of performance shaping factors. Thirdly, the relationships among errors in two successive cognitive phases are discussed. Finally, a simple example is selected to illustrate the proposed approach.