Cognitive Work Analysis Fall 2003 IST 331 Lecture

Cognitive Work Analysis Fall 2003 IST 331 Lecture 6

Cognitive Work Analysis u An approach to analyzing human cognition to help designers build interfaces that let human operators safely handle unanticipated abnormalities and faults – Three Mile Island

Cognitive Work Analysis Human cognitive work in complex real-time systems u Grew out of Cognitive Engineering u – With relation to Ecological Interface Design

Cognitive Work Analysis u External physical system being controlled – Determine what the correct model of the system is – Possibilities for action – As in the Three Mile Island event

Cognitive Work Analysis Figure 9. 6, page 240

Cognitive Work Analysis u Work Domain Analysis – Set of physical and purposive constraints within which activity takes place – Purposive means the reasons that a technical system exists and needs to be controlled – Analysis of fields of constraints – Example: directions to go some place vs. map which displays constraints

Cognitive Work Analysis u Control Task Analysis – Defines what needs to be done for a work domain to be effectively controlled – Independent of how or by whom u Human or automated system – Take the form of decision ladder or maps of control task coordination – Example: air defense work pg. 244

Cognitive Work Analysis u Strategies Analysis – How control tasks can be done is analyzed – Control tasks can be done in many different ways u Costs and benefits of each method – Results in flowchart of strategies – Example: pg. 247

Cognitive Work Analysis u Social-Organizational Analysis – How responsibilities for executing strategies are divided among u Humans and automation u How different agents might communicate with each other – Factors considered include load sharing, to couple or decouple functions, safety, etc. – Social organization for communications u Autocratic organization u Authority hierarchy u Etc.

Cognitive Work Analysis u Worker Competencies Analysis – Classify different kinds of cognitive control needed by human operators – Skills-Rules-Knowledge taxonomy tool u Skill-based behavior u Rule-based behavior u Knowledge-based behavior – Experienced operator will move fluently between different levels of cognitive control in response to a work situation

Cognitive Work Analysis

Cognitive Work Analysis u Analysis narrows down to the functional action possibilities by classifying different kinds of cognitive control

System Life Cycle u System Life Cycle – Requirements definition – Modeling and simulation – Tender evaluation – Operator training – System upgrade – System decommissioning u Cognitive Work Analysis can be applied to each stage of the System Life Cycle

Case Applied u Commonwealth of Australia’s Airborne Early Warning and Control defense platform

Language Use

Language u Human-human interaction – HCI looks at communication using electronic media – Some theories look at language as a cognitive process – Others look at language as a social process – Herbert Clark bridges 2 camps u Design of facilities to electronically mediate communication

Language u Clark based on common ground – Different kinds of common ground – Collaboration is a joint action – Common ground is developed through joint action u Example:

Language u Face-to-Face Conversation – More then words u Hands u Face u Eyes u Body – Joint action involving 2 or more people – Use common ground to minimize effort required to communicate – Conversation tests, reformulates, and adds to our common ground

Time / Space Matrix u Common axis names: – Time: synchronous / asynchronous – Place: co-located / remote Non-computer communications

Case