Communication and Cognitive Retention

The Communication and Cognitive Retention (Safety Climate) project seeks to understand the efficacy of current safety communications and investigate the factors that contribute to cognitive retention, the stickiness of safety messaging. Despite continuous advancements in health and safety standards, mines represent a high risk industry with a high occurrence of fatalities, injuries, and diseases (International Labour Organization, 2016). Studies indicate that many safety messages are often not remembered and, in particular, do not consistently impact the way that people think or act (Ricci, Chiesi, Bisio, Panari, & Pelosi, 2016). Past studies have identified a range of factors that interact to produce positive cognitive retention and embed safety priority in all aspects of work (Heath & Heath, 2007; König, Mammen, Luger, Fehn, & Enders, 2018), This includes for example, supervisory leadership, communication characteristics and communication networks (Parker, Tones, & Ritchie, 2017), which develop strong safety climate - a social context that reinforces safety in all day-to-day activities. Drawing on research from social-psychology and social marketing, as well as empirical study in Australian coal mine sites, the objectives of this project are: 1. To understand and assess efficacy of current safety measure campaigns 2. To understand the practices that increase message ‘stickiness’, that is, the extent to which safety communications are understood, remembered and embedded in safety mindsets that direct every aspect of work 3. To provide guidance regarding communication practices that can increase cognitive retention of safety communications, reduce safety risk-taking behavior and strengthen safety climate