2025 John W. Severinghaus Lecture: It’s Not Your Fault—Or Is It? The Cognitive Basis for Errors

The human brain is a marvel of cognition, assessing and reacting to the world around us with amazing speed and excellent, but not perfect, accuracy. This rapidity and fluidity of cognition comes with notable, inherent flaws that lead to errors, some of which have disastrous results for patients and providers. This article presents key concepts in cognition and demonstrates how errors can arise from the unconscious mind: errors that we cannot predict, cannot prevent, and may not perceive. Fortunately, there are effective barriers and interventions that can be employed to prevent these unconscious errors from reaching and harming a patient.