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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—to understand the results of the CTA.
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