The purpose of science is to reveal how the physical world works. The human world, including psychology and other social sciences, is part of the physical world. The human experience of consciousness, including our ability to experience aspects of the physical world through our sensory apparatus, is part of science. Human behavior is part of science. See "Understanding human perception by human-made illusions" by Claus-Christian Carbon here.

If we are participating in a failure analysis, we need to understand the limitations of how our brains and sensory organs collect and interpret data. If we know what mistakes we tend to make as members of the human race, we have a greater chance to avoid some mistakes over the course of the investigation and over the course of our careers.

The Four Idols, described in the book Novum Organum by Francis Bacon, published in 1626 and available free online, is a good way to introduce yourself to these errors. Manly P. Hall has an excellent introduction to Bacon’s ideas at http://www.sirbacon.org/links/4idols.htm

There are two main contributors to the complexity and power of human thought. The first, which to some degree overlaps with animal thought, is the processing that raw sensory data is subjected to before it gets to the brain (see previous reference). Data processing continues in different areas of the brain prior to reaching normal awareness. In addition, humans have many "heuristic" thought pathways, or short-cuts, that allow rapid analysis of data, usually below the level of conscious awareness. By combining these two fundamental data pathways, humans developed effective data interpretation skills. Humans also enhance mental skills through education and training, supercharged by the benefit of language.

My focus here on sensory gathering of data does not imply that this is the only way to gain awareness of reality. Going back to the time of Plato, philosophers argued that we contain within us a knowledge of the structure of reality. Plato taught that ideal forms were more real than the models we make of them by sensory interaction. The interested reader may wish to contemplate how our knowledge of specific exemplars of Plato’s ideal forms relates to what is commonly called intuition. Dreams have a long history of providing new scientific and mathematical theories, and I have occasionally awakened with fresh insights into failure-analysis puzzles.