Communicating safety information: Investigating how distractors affect the recall of key safety information in pre-flight safety briefings.

Distractors have been shown to adversely impact individuals' ability to acquire target information. However, not all distractors are the same. Distractors that compete/interfere for the same cognitive resources as the target, are thought to be more detrimental to performance than those that do not compete for the same resources. The aim of the present research was to examine the effect of distractors on individuals' memory, namely recall of key safety messages presented in an airline's pre-flight safety briefing. In a laboratory experiment in which one-hundred and twenty-four participants watched one of four different videos, two of which were paired with a distractor task (grammatical reason and computation task), we identified the adverse effect of the distractor task on recall performance. Minor differences were noted between the two distractor task groups. These results suggest the effect of a distractor on performance may be explained, in general by the additional cognitive load imposed, as opposed to the more specific competition for the same cognitive resources. From an applied perspective, these results highlight the importance of limiting distractors when important information to be remembered is communicated.

Selling safety: the use of celebrities in improving awareness of safety in commercial aviation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influential power of a celebrity to convey key safety messages in commercial aviation using a pre-flight safety briefing video. In addition, the present research sought to examine the effectiveness of subtitles in aiding the recall of these important messages as well as how in-cabin aircraft noise affects recall of this information. A total of 101 participants were randomly divided into four groups (no noise without subtitles, no noise with subtitles, noise without subtitles and noise with subtitles) and following exposure to a pre-recorded pre-flight safety briefing video were tested for recall of key safety messages within that video. Participants who recognised and recalled the name of the celebrity in the safety briefing video recalled significantly more of the messages than participants who did not recognise the celebrity. Subtitles were also found to be effective, however, only in the presence of representative in-cabin aircraft noise. Practitioner Summary: Passenger attention to pre-flight safety briefings on commercial aircraft is poor. Utilising the celebrity status of a famous person may overcome this problem. Results suggest that celebrities do increase the recall of safety-related information.