Instructors and learners should be aware of a natural human tendency to resist learning from errors. That is, there is a tendency to  “explain away” errors, dismissing them as one-time events that will likely never happen again. The same phenomenon occurs when  observing errors made by others. Reading an accident or incident report, it is easy to spot where a pilot or mechanic made an error  and regard the error as something that could never happen to the reader. It is important to note that this type of bias is not necessarily  the result of ego or overconfidence; rather, it is something to which we are all susceptible. Psychologist Baruch Fischoff studied  hindsight explanations given by people who were presented with descriptions of situations and their ultimate outcomes. When asked  to provide explanations for events that had already occurred and for which the outcome was known, people explained that the  outcomes were “obvious” and “predictable.” When the same events without the outcomes were presented to a second group, peoples’$_{ }$ prediction of the outcome was no better than chance guessing. The study nicely illustrates the popular adage that “hindsight is 20/20.”$_{ }$ To help learners learn from errors they make and be prepared for them in the future, an instructor should:  Memory is the vital link between the learner learning/retaining information and the cognitive process of applying what is learned. It is  the ability of people and other organisms to encode (initial perception and registration of information), store (retention of encoded  information over time), and retrieve (processes involved in using stored information) information.  [Figure 3-22]  When a person  successfully recalls a past experience (or skill), information about the experience has been encoded, stored, and retrieved.  Summary of Instructor Actions  Memory  ⦁ $_{Explain that pilots and mechanics at all levels of skill and experience make occasional errors. }$ ⦁ $_{Explain that the magnitude and frequency of errors tend to decrease as skill and experience increases. }$ ⦁ $_{Explain the difference between slips and mistakes and provide examples of each. }$ ⦁ $_{Explain ways in which the learner can help minimize errors. }$ ⦁ $_{Allow the learner to practice recovering from common errors. }$ ⦁  Point out errors when they occur and ask the learner to explain why they occurred.  Figure 3-22.  Information processing within the sensory register, working on short-term memory, and long-term memory includes  complex coding, sorting, storing, and recall functions.  Although there is no universal agreement of how memory works, a widely accepted model has three components: sensory memory,  short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).  3-35 