Narrative:

On the descent on the arrival; we received a clearance to descend and maintain FL180 near. The altitude was selected and confirmed and a descent was initiated. This clearance is uncommon on this arrival and we were anticipating to continue the descent for the expected zzzzz intersection crossing at 8;000. Passing through roughly FL185 we began to adjust the altimeters for the transition forgetting that we were leveling off at FL180. We began the altimeter transition slightly early due to an abnormally high altimeter setting (30.43) and the effects that it has on a VNAV descent path especially with a strong tailwind. As we began leveling off we remembered that we were cleared to level off at FL180 and therefore had the wrong altimeter setting in. We immediately readjusted the altimeter to standard (29.92) which then showed us roughly 400 feet low. We immediately climbed back up to FL180 with the appropriate altimeter setting. No conflict was noted and ATC did not seem to notice. We deviated from our clearance altitude for a total of roughly 20 seconds. This was definitely an example of expectation bias and a breakdown of established procedures. As the pilot monitoring (pm); I failed the pilot flying (PF) when I did not adhere to sterile cockpit procedures within 1;000 of level off. We had received a confusing radio transmission from center shortly before the event and it distracted us and caused me to lose situational awareness momentarily. I was also looking at the STAR on the ipad instead of monitoring the level off as I should have. Adhere to established procedures.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-190 flight crew reported inadvertently setting local altimeter while assigned FL180.

Narrative: On the descent on the arrival; we received a clearance to descend and maintain FL180 near. The altitude was selected and confirmed and a descent was initiated. This clearance is uncommon on this arrival and we were anticipating to continue the descent for the expected ZZZZZ Intersection crossing at 8;000. Passing through roughly FL185 we began to adjust the altimeters for the transition forgetting that we were leveling off at FL180. We began the altimeter transition slightly early due to an abnormally high altimeter setting (30.43) and the effects that it has on a VNAV descent path especially with a strong tailwind. As we began leveling off we remembered that we were cleared to level off at FL180 and therefore had the wrong altimeter setting in. We immediately readjusted the altimeter to STD (29.92) which then showed us roughly 400 feet low. We immediately climbed back up to FL180 with the appropriate altimeter setting. No conflict was noted and ATC did not seem to notice. We deviated from our clearance altitude for a total of roughly 20 seconds. This was definitely an example of expectation bias and a breakdown of established procedures. As the Pilot Monitoring (PM); I failed the Pilot Flying (PF) when I did not adhere to sterile cockpit procedures within 1;000 of level off. We had received a confusing radio transmission from Center shortly before the event and it distracted us and caused me to lose situational awareness momentarily. I was also looking at the STAR on the iPad instead of monitoring the level off as I should have. Adhere to established procedures.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.