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Cognitive Task Analysis
Summary
In order to understand how people act upon the world around them, it is necessary to understand what goes on inside their heads. Particularly when the tasks they are doing are complex, it is not enough to simply observe their behaviors. It is also important to find out how they think and what they know, how they organize and structure information, and what they seek to understand better. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is a family of methods and tools for gaining access to the mental processes that organize and give meaning to observable behavior. CTA methods describe the cognitive processes that underlie performance of tasks and the cognitive skills needed to respond adeptly to complex situations.
CTA can boost human performance by guiding the development of tools and programs that support the cognitive processes required for a task. The results of CTA studies have been successfully applied to areas such as instruction and training, system development, human-computer interface design, organizational design, product design, and marketing. CTA typically consists of distinct phases of knowledge elicitation, analysis, and knowledge representation.
Knowledge Elicitation is the process of extracting information, through in- depth interviews and observations, about cognitive events, structures, or models. Often the people who provide this information are subject matter experts (SMEs) People who have demonstrated high levels of skill and knowledge in the domain of interest.
Analysis is a process of structuring data inspecting, selecting, simplifying, abstracting, and transforming information, developing explanations, and extracting meaning. CTA practitioners use a range of quantitative and qualitative analyses in handling data.
Knowledge Representation is the process of displaying data and depicting relationships, explanations, and the meaning derived from data analysis. This step is integral for enabling other people sponsors, customers, system designers who understand the results of the CTA.
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