A Search for Meaning

Abstract

The first section of the chapter contrasts a cognitive systems engineering (CSE) approach to task analysis with classical approaches. The critical difference is that a CSE approach is designed to provide a “survey’ of the meaning landscape – what are the constraints that might guide adaptation. Classical approaches tend to focus the task analysis on “routes” or specific behavior trajectories (the one best way) within the domain. The second section provides a brief account of an on-going task analysis to understand the task of flying a precision instrument approach. This section provides samples of what we have learned from studying the history of aviation, reading authorities on flying, developing a synthetic task environment for landing, learning and teaching people to fly the simulation, observing and talking with experienced pilots, and talking with aeronautical engineers. Introduction: Where are we coming from and where are we going? The idea of “task analysis” can be traced to the early “time and motion” studies of the “scientific management” approach to work (Taylor, 1911; Gilbreth & Gilbreth, 1917). The general approach was first to describe a manual process in terms of fundamental elements (e.g., therbligs –