Publications / 2022 Proceedings of the 39th ISARC, Bogotá, Colombia

Toward Personalized Safety Training: Automating the Classification of Construction Workers' Cognitive Failures

Kyeongsuk Lee, Yugandhar Shinde, Sogand Hasanzadeh and Behzad Esmaeili
Pages 268-275 (2022 Proceedings of the 39th ISARC, Bogotá, Colombia, ISBN 978-952-69524-2-0, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

Safety training has long been considered a promising method to enhance workers' hazard identification skills within construction sites. To improve the effectiveness of safety training, such varied features as a training environment, individuals' learning ability, and lesson personalization have been investigated. However, as records show workers still miss hazards even after receiving safety training, understanding the fundamental cognitive reasons for unrecognized hazards becomes a crucial step toward developing effective personalized safety training. This study used various 360° panoramas of construction scenarios to empirically examine 30 workers' visual search strategies and assess workers' hazard identification skills. Results suggest several cognitive limitations caused failures in hazard recognition, including attentional failure, inattentional blindness, and low perceived risk. Based on these findings, this study proposes a personalized safety training framework to address such cognitive limitations to improve occupational safety in the construction industry.

Keywords: Hazard identification; Construction safety; Cognitive failures; Personalized safety training; Attentional failure; Inattentional blindness; Risk Perception