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What is Cognitive Ergonomics?

Cognitive ergonomics is the field of study that focuses on how well the use of a product matches the cognitive
capabilities of users. It draws on knowledge of human perception, mental processing, and memory. Rather than
being a design discipline, it is a source of knowledge for designers to use as guidelines for ensuring good
usability.

Cognitive ergonomics mainly focuses on work activities which:

 have an emphasized cognitive component (e.g., calculation, decision-making)


 are in safety-critical environments
 are in a complex, changeableenvironment(i.e., where tasks cannot be predetermined)

The first domains investigated by cognitive ergonomics were nuclear power plants, air traffic control systems,
and medical anesthetics. Those situations feature complex environments (e.g., where there are many controls
and switches—or many factors—coming into play) and where exceptional focus is needed so as to make
decisions in potentially life-threatening situations. In the years following, many studies were conducted in
“softer” domains such as banking, office work and leisure activities. The principles proved transferable between
such environments.

Central to cognitive ergonomics is the notion of domain: the larger environment in which the system must
operate, presenting both constraints and opportunities for the system. The field also studies the competencies
and limitations of users in their interaction with the system in general (e.g., attention, perception errors,
strategies, cognitive workload). In particular, it studies the cognitive artifacts they use to achieve their goals, as
well as their co-operation with other actors. As a result, each cognitive ergonomic study operates with two
underlying theories (implicit or explicit): a theory about the domain and a theory about human cognition. Since
cognitive ergonomics covers both realms with such immediacy and addresses the interconnectivity of factors
involved in use scenarios, designing with these considerations in mind helps ensure the usability of a product.

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/cognitive-ergonomics
interaction design foundation

1. Cognitive ergonomics
by Bill Papantoniou

Cognitive Ergonomics, also known as Cognitive Engineering, is an engineering discipline that is concerned
with supporting cognitive work.

The aim of the intervention can be the design of an artifact (cognitive design (Dowell and Long 1998)), a
training program, or work redesign. Since any human activity-even so-called “physical work”-involves a
cognitive part, Cognitive Ergonomics could be said to analyze any purposeful human task. Nevertheless,
Cognitive Ergonomics (CE henceforth) mainly focuses on work activities having:

 an emphasized cognitive component (e.g. calculation, decision making)


 safety-critical environments
 operating in a complex, changing environment (i.e. tasks cannot be predetermined)
The first domains investigated by CE were nuclear power plants, air traffic control, and anaesthesia. In recent
years many studies have been conducted in other “softer” domains such as banking, office work and leisure
activities.

As a field of study CE overlaps with fields such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (CSCW), Human Reliability Analysis (HRA), Safety Engineering, Risk Management. CE's
difference from HCI is mainly the broader focus of the analysis to include the worksystem as a whole, as
opposed to the user-computer interaction, as well as other factors (organizational, historical etc.) that traditional
HCI often avoids to address, and hides under the “context” label instead.

Central in CE is the notion of domain: domain is the larger environment in which the worksystem must operate,
and presents both constraints and opportunities for the worksystem. The domain influences the approach
followed, as the degree of coupling among its constituents, the level of top-down causality and the degree of
human intentionality in decision making shapes the validity of the models used.

CE also studies the competencies and limitations of the worker in his interaction with the worksystem in general
(e.g. attention, perception errors, strategies, cognitive workload), and in particular the cognitive artifacts he uses
to achieve his goals as well as his co-operation with other actors.

Models of Cognitive Ergonomics

As a result, one could say that each Cognitive Ergonomics study operates with two underlying theories (implicit
or explicit): a theory about the domain and a theory about human cognition .

Regarding analysis and modeling of the domain, CE has used methods borrowed from systems theory,
ethnography, cognitive anthropology. There are two strands of approaches regarding the domain. The first stand
is mainly based on written documents and blueprints that reflect the structural aspects of the domain - e.g.
(Rasmussen, Pejtersen et al. 1994). The second strand is mainly preoccupied with field research in order to
study the representations of the domain as dynamically constructed by people at work - e.g. (Engeström and
Middleton 1996).

Traditionally CE has used the “human information-processing” model of cognition (Wickens 1992) , which
models human cognition through a computer metaphor. Although this approach has proved fruitful, it has
limitations since it doesn't address issues such as embodiment, emotion, intentionality etc. In order to overcome
these limitations, there have been approaches based on other frameworks such as Gibson's Ecological
Psychology and the notion of affordances (Gibson 1979; Rasmussen, Pejtersen et al. 1994), Heidegger's
Phenomenology (Winograd and Flores 1987; Dourish 2001), Activity Theory (Nardi 1996), and Autopoiesis
(Theureau 2003). Each of these approaches offers a way of reframing CE's relation with the work activity under
investigation. Ecological psychology and phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1958) are concerned with the
embodied aspects of cognition as they are revealed in skillful acts (Gallagher 2005), as well as the extension of
cognition beyond the boundaries of the body (Hutchins 1995). Activity Theory revealed the historical character
of activity and gives CE a tool to investigate the interplay between man, work and domain. The difficulty lies in
achieving a balanced approach to work that doesn't give precedence to any of these aspects (i.e. a purely
historical approach that neglects information processing aspects, or an information processing approach that
neglects ethnographic aspects of work).
Methods-Theories Used

Methods and theories used in CE include:

 Hierarchical Task Analysis (Kirwan and Ainsworth 1992)


o Goals-Means Analysis
o Events Analyses
o Root-Cause Analyses
o Network Analyses, etc.
o Group Task Analysis
 Cognitive Task Analysis (Hollnagel 2003)
o cognitive interviewing
o analysis of verbal protocols
o multi-dimensional scaling
o ethnographical analyses
o computer simulations of human performance (cognitive simulations)
o human error analysis
o Performance Migration Analysis
 Distributed Cognition (Hutchins 1995)
 Activity Theory (Nardi 1996)
 Course of Action Task Analysis (Theureau 2003)
 Joint Cognitive Systems (Hollnagel and Woods 2005)

Where to Learn More

Cognitive Ergonomics embraces a diverse field of disciplines and as a result no authoritative books exist, or
even common terminology, although efforts have been made to develop one - e.g. (Dowell and Long 1998).

The closest thing to a CE textbook is “Cognitive Work Analysis” (Vicente 1999), which is a good
popularization of Rasmussen's Cognitive Systems Engineering framework. Latest work involves two books
written by E. Hollnagel & D. Woods (Hollnagel and Woods 2005; Woods and Hollnagel 2006).

Informative websites include:

 Cognitive Systems Engineering Laboratory Articles and blog from David Woods, one of the leading
researchers in the field.

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-glossary-of-human-computer-interaction/cognitive-
ergonomics
interaction design foundation

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