The researchers define cognitive failures as a cognitively based error that occurs during the performance of a task that a person is normally successful in executing. Cognitive failures encompasses execution lapses in;
- attention (i.e. failures in perception),
- memory (i.e. failures related to information retrieval),
- motor function (i.e. the performance of unintended action, or action slips).
When cognitive failure occurs, people’s execution of a task is unintentionally effected. Cognitive failure is somehow related to cognitive factors such as overload of short term memory capacity, reduced attention and vigilance level, incidental learning and divided attention (Broadband, Cooper, Fitzgerald, ;Parkes 1982). Cognitive failures measure real world cognitive capacity rather than pure ‘unchallenged’ ability.
Researches Impacts of Job Stress and Cognitive Failure on Patient Safety Incidents among Hospital Nurses This study aimed to identify the impacts of job stress and cognitive failure on patient safety incidents among hospital nurses in Korea. This study showed that 27.9% of the participants had experienced patient safety incidents in the past 6 months. Factors affecting incidents were found to be shift work odds ratio (OR) = 6.85, cognitive failure (OR = 2.92), lacking job autonomy (OR = 0.97), and job instability (OR = 1.02).
The effects of self-report cognitive failures and cognitive load on antisaccade performance We investigated the relationship between self-reported levels of cognitive failures (CF) in daily life and performance in the antisaccade task, a widely used tool examining attentional control.
We found that both levels of self-reported CF and task load increased antisaccade latencies while having no effect on prosaccade eye-movements. However individuals rating themselves as suffering few daily life distractions showed a comparable load cost to those who experience many. These findings suggest that the likelihood of distraction is governed by the addition of both internal susceptibility and the external current load placed on working memory.
Comparison of cognitive failures and academic performance among the students with and without developmental coordination disorder This study aimed at comparing the cognitive failures and academic performance between two groups of students with and without developmental coordination disorder.
Results of the multivariate analysis of the variance (MANOVA) showed that DCD students have higher mean total scores of cognitive failures (P001). Results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that cognitive failures explain 83% of the variance of the changes related to the symptoms of DCD in these students.
