Cognitive Factors Underlying Unsafe Behaviors of Construction Workers as a Tool in Safety Management: A Review

Understanding the dynamic interactions in the construction worker's cognitive process is the key to eliminating human errors on construction sites and designing safety interventions to facilitate better safety management. However, the existing literature lacks a systematic review of the construction workers' cognitive-related factors from the perspective of competence and their application in safety interventions. This review aims to summarize the state-of-the-art cognitive-related studies of construction employee errors and provide a guide for considering cognitive-related factors for safety management. The selection of relevant studies was through a three-step process. Key findings from these papers are organized into three areas of interest, namely (1) extractions of cognitive-related factors in the construction worker's cognitive process, (2) determinations of the cognitive-related factors, and (3) cognitive-based safety interventions. Key conclusions include: (1) cognitive-related factors have been studied piecemeal and the ones that show a worker's competence have been missing; (2) sensing of cognitive factors has focused on the perception stage and mixed indicator matrix to determine the worker's cognitive status is needed; (3) safety interventions lack personalization and need to incorporate usable cognitive factors. A synthesis of the concepts underlying the reviewed studies is provided to get a sense of the strengths and gaps in the current studies, with suggestions for future research provided.