what caused the accident?

This is a good example of knowing the detailed description of information processing stages in our brain. I got this from Visual Expert Human Factor's website. Hey, what do you think? What caused the collision?

Mr. X, age 55, is driving down a secondary road, Hobart St., at 9:00 PM in an unfamiliar part of town. He is late because he promised to pick up his wife at 8:45. Mr. X is listening to the hockey game on the car radio while he looks for Front St., where his wife said to turn in order to reach his destination. Ms. Y, wearing a dark blue coat and white hat, crosses in the middle of Hobart St without looking. Mr. X does not see her and strikes Ms Y with his car. Police arrive and question Mr. X, who says that he never saw the pedestrian. Mr. X admits that he has had a few beers but his blood alcohol content is .06, within the legal limit. The police do not charge him with DUI. What caused the accident?

The writers stated that the collision would not have occured if everything had worked properly. Mr X supposed to

-detect Ms. Y's blue coat or white hat as a blob
-turn eyes toward her to define the shape
-retrieve the necessary information from memory to identify the shape as a person
-decide to apply brakes
-apply brakes

It means that our brain works according to memory. When our eyes detect some occasions or situations, the signal will be sent to the brain automatically in order to search the similar situation that had been experienced from the past. It will recall the actions that had been done and reflect through present behaviors. But if the eyes are failed to notice the correct object or surrounding, the misjudgment will occurred, and our brain will interpreted wrong signal that could cause wrong action.

p/s:
That’s why we need to remember the sweet things in our life and forget the hard ones. It will influenced our actions in the future. But one said that – it’s easy to forgive, but it’s never easy to forget. Besides, forgetting is not the correct thing to do. Learn from the situation is might be the best way. It is interesting to realize how brain works!