• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Safety Training / Wired For Safety–The Memory Effect

Wired For Safety–The Memory Effect

June 13, 2013 by Admin 2 Comments

Wired For Safety–The Memory Effect

Molecular Thoughts

Mark Taylor has started an other brilliant discussion on the LinkedIn Group Work Health Safety (OHS) Leadership for All (Australia): Wired for Safety. You will love the little memory exercise at the end. Great Read Mark!!!!

“When we go shopping we carefully form a list and use it to remind us of what to buy when we walk down the aisles and usually this prevents us from forget anything. Why then do we carefully prepare a JSA (task analysis), with a defined sequence of steps and only read it out during a morning briefing and don’t bother utilizing it for the remainder of the day? Surely this is counter productive, as people can’t be held responsible for remembering all the steps in order and the subsequent control measures.

 

New studies in neuroscience have found that our brains don’t think in logical sequences, so why do we adopt these systems anyway. When trying to remember things it is usually the first and last words in a sequence that we remember, so why not place the high risk factors at the start and finish.

Novel things also trigger a memory so I suggest adding a colour or something out of the ordinary in the middle of a sentence. Finally repetition is the key so instead of only reading out the whole document at the start of the day, try doing it incrementally at critically parts of the job (as you would do for hold points in a quality procedure). Or, use one of the new cell phone apps so it is readily available and can be easily read even in wet conditions. Instead of getting everyone to remember everything, try getting certain individuals to concentrate on certain steps in the procedure and number them, or colour code them, so its easy for them to remember.

If you don’t believe me try this exercise and it will prove my point:

Briefing:

Tell the participants that you will administer a memory test that involves listening and recalling a series of words. Tell them to listen carefully to the words that will be read out and not to repeat them verbally or write them down. Read out the list of words in order and pause briefly between words: • Dream • Sleep • Night • Mattress • Snooze • Sheet • Nod • Tired • Night • Artichoke • Insomnia • Blanket • Night • Alarm • Nap • Snore • Pillow

Pause for 10 seconds and ask the delegates to write down as many of the words they can recall. Give the delegates about 40 seconds to complete this task. Explain that you are not interested in finding out how each person performed on the test, but explore the four basic principles of memory.

Debriefing Primary and recent effects: Ask participants to raise their hands if they recalled the words “dream and pillow. Most participants will likely have written “dream” and “pillow” because these were the first and last words in the list

Surprise effect: Ask participants to raise their hands if they wrote down the word “artichoke”. Explain that people have a tendency to remember anything that is novel or different.

Repetition: Ask the participants to raise their hands if they recalled the word night. Explain that repetition is a key factor in recall. Since the word night was repeated three times, most participants will have this word in their memory.

False-memory effect: Ask the participants to raise their hands if they recalled the word bed. A few people will likely raise their hands in response to this question. Explain that the word bed wasn’t on the list! Explain that the human brain has a tendency to close logical gaps in what they hear, see or read and frequently this effect provides us with memories of things or events that never took place.

Learning • If you apply the four principles of memory, you increase your ability to recall things easier. • You can use these principles to help employees remember crucial aspects of safety in their work.

Mark Taylor http://www.safetymatters.co.nz

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Safety Training Tagged With: JSA, memory, swms, wired for safety

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,499 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do

The KISS of Death in Safety

Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health

The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’

The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

No Good Reason to Follow Reason

The Moral Harm of the Zero Cult

Toxic Positivity in Safety Doesn’t Help Anyone

Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Brent Charlton on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Rob Long on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Jason on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Admin on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Gustavo Saralegui on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Rob long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Wynand on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Safety Acronyms

Recent Posts

  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • Harming People in the Name of Good
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Risk and Safety Maturity
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety
  • Free Online Workshops
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

SOCD – Safety Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Zero Vision but Purchase Insurance

Holistic Responses to Mental Health

Why Metaphors Matter in Risk

Safety is not Just a Choice

Bad Moon Rising

The Reason Safety Has Gone So Crazy

Safety Engagement with Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace

TRIFR Safety Zombies

Until Nothing Changes in Safety

Visual Learning and Envisioning Risk

The Risk Aversion Delusion

Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts

Speak Up, Reporting and Trust in Safety

Human Factors Factors

The Shock of Homeostasis

Celebrating 1000 Blogs on Risk

Semiotics and Safety

Non-Binary Decision Making in Risk

The Mechanistic Worldview and the Dehumanisation of Risk

It Takes Two to Tango–Reflections on Safe Behaviour

Safety – Learning by Doing and Learning by Theory

Human Dymensions Feb17 Newsletter and Competition

How Semiotics Affects The Return To Work Process

So, You Want Culture Change

Safety Superstitions

Affirming Chance

Shopping for Safety

Social Sensemaking–New Book Release

Social Psychology of Risk Challenge

WARNING: Not Your Typical Safety Nonsense

Concept Mapping Risk iCue

Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety

The Great Heinrich Hoax

Shock and Fear in Safety

Just Tell Your Mind to Stop It

Kinesthetic Safety

Knowing When to Break the Rules

No Evidence for the Religion of Zero

There is no ‘Satellite Insightfulness’

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,499 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY