Impact of hazard type on pre-attentive detection of safety hazards: Evidence from visual mismatch negativity

The failure to detect hazards is one of the most common human errors in construction accidents. Previous research mainly focused on later cognitive processes for hazard detection, such as workers' attention, distraction, and vigilance, ignoring cognitive impairment that may occur during elementary information processing. Using electroencephalography signals, this research investigated the impact of hazard type on construction workers' pre-attentive abilities for detecting hazards from the standpoint of a more early cognitive process. The pre-attention of construction workers to three types of hazards was compared using evidence from visual mismatch negativity, along with their behaviour performance, and self-perceived risks towards them. Results show that workers are more likely to turn a blind eye to slip and fall hazards that are on the same level than falls from height and be struck-by. Proactive and passive strategies for improving pre-attention were then suggested to improve construction workers' occupational safety in management practice. © 2023 30th EG-ICE: International Conference on Intelligent Computing in Engineering 2023. All rights reserved.