Cognitive Task Analysis Methodology Research Articles

Applied cognitive task analysis methodology: Fundamental cognitive skills surgical nurses require to manage patient deterioration.

Applied cognitive task analysis methodology: Fundamental cognitive skills surgical nurses require to manage patient deterioration.

Eye tracking for work-related visual search: a cognitive task analysis

Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is an important methodology in ergonomics for studying workplaces and work patterns. Using eye tracking as a CTA methodology, this article explores visual search patterns in complex work environments and situations. It presents a simulated crime scene case study that applies eye tracking-based experiments in foraging and sense-making loops to elicit and represent knowledge on expert versus novice search patterns for complex work. The case probes the visual search task of preliminarily evaluating and documenting potential crime scene evidence. The experimental protocol relies on the ASL Mobile Eye and the analyses of experimental data include preliminary inspections of live-viewing data on eye-movements, precedence matrices detailing scan paths, and gaze charts that illustrate participants’ attention based on fixation counts and durations. In line with the CTA methodology, the article uses concept maps to represent knowledge derived from different phases of the study. The article also discusses the research implications and methodologically reflects on the case study. Practitioner summary: This study offers valuable insights for work design. The use of eye tracking as a CTA methodology offers potentials for translating visual search tasks into defined visual search concepts for complex work environments and situations. The ability to model visual attention is valuable for work designs that improve complex work performance, reduce work stress, and promote work satisfaction.

Metacognitive Strategies for Effective Interaction Across Cultures: Global Leaders Perspective

Cross-cultural interactions are densely woven into the fabric of our diverse global environment. Accordingly, contemporary organizations are challenged with managing various forms of interdependence between representatives of different cultures while building synergies towards shared goals. Research demonstrates that individual effectiveness in cross-cultural interactions is facilitated by cultural metacognition that can be enhanced through the acquisition and employment of relevant metacognitive strategies. This qualitative study utilized Cognitive Task Analysis methodology to explore metacognitive processes engaged by global leaders during intercultural interactions and identified five effective metacognitive strategies that could be used to improve cross-cultural effectiveness of leaders and outcomes for corporations.

Roadmap for the Development of at-Home Telemonitoring Systems to Augment Occupational Therapy

While the literature supports the potential to provide occupational therapy through telemedicine, there are several design challenges embedded in creating an at-home telemonitoring system that can visualize the complex biomechanical data required for clinical decision making. The challenge highlighted here is the development of measures that align with current decision making methods, which will support the integration and translation of the technology. A modified cognitive task analysis methodology is presented that is composed of three segments: characterizing the subject matter, defining relevant information, and formalizing requirements. This method was implemented through observations of eight therapists over 21 patient sessions. There were nine unique modes of interaction observed between the clinician and patient. Embedded within these interactions were 14 different features monitored. Relevant performance measures were defined from these interactions to provide perception and comprehension situation awareness (SA) to the clinician about the patients task performance. Using specific activities observed during therapy sessions, sample metrics and a visualization are presented that followed from the SA requirements. Finally, the technological challenges associated with making these measurements were identified.

Applying cognitive task analysis methodology in educational research

Effective teaching is a valuable skill that is hard to learn and understand by just simply observing someone teach. One of the ways to gain better insight into how this skill is being developed is to explore teachers' cognitive processes. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) methodology developed to study the cognition of experts performing challenging tasks can be a useful tool to gain this insight. This paper will review the underlying theoretical assumptions of this methodology and suggest how one could apply CTA to educational research.

Task analysis method for procedural training curriculum development.

A central venous catheter (CVC) is an important medical tool used in critical care and emergent situations. Integral to proper care in many circumstances, insertion of a CVC introduces the risk of central line-associated blood stream infections and mechanical adverse events; proper training is important for safe CVC insertion. Cognitive task analysis (CTA) methods have been successfully implemented in the medical field to improve the training of postgraduate medical trainees, but can be very time-consuming to complete and require a significant time commitment from many subject matter experts (SMEs). Many medical procedures such as CVC insertion are linear processes with well-documented procedural steps. These linear procedures may not require a traditional CTA to gather the information necessary to create a training curriculum. Accordingly, a novel, streamlined CTA method designed primarily to collect cognitive cues for linear procedures was developed to be used by medical professionals with minimal CTA training. This new CTA methodology required fewer trained personnel, fewer interview sessions, and less time commitment from SMEs than a traditional CTA. Based on this study, a streamlined CTA methodology can be used to efficiently gather cognitive information on linear medical procedures for the creation of resident training curricula and procedural skills assessments.

Utilization of a cognitive task analysis for laparoscopic appendectomy to identify differentiated intraoperative teaching objectives

BackgroundExperts become automated when performing surgery, making it difficult to teach complex procedures to trainees. Cognitive task analysis (CTA) enables experts to articulate operative steps and cognitive decisions in complex procedures such as laparoscopic appendectomy, which can then be used to identify central teaching points. MethodsThree local surgeon experts in laparoscopic appendectomy were interviewed using critical decision method-based CTA methodology. Interview transcripts were analyzed, and a cognitive demands table (CDT) was created for each expert. The individual CDTs were reviewed by each expert for completeness and then combined into a master CDT. Percentage agreement on operative steps and decision points was calculated for each expert. The experts then participated in a consensus meeting to review the master CDT. Each surgeon expert was asked to identify in the master CDT the most important teaching objectives for junior-level and senior-level residents. The experts' responses for junior-level and senior-level residents were compared using a χ2 test. ResultsThe surgeon experts identified 24 operative steps and 27 decision points. Eighteen of the 24 operative steps (75%) were identified by all 3 surgeon experts. The percentage of operative steps identified was high for each surgeon expert (96% for surgeon 1, 79% for surgeon 2, and 83% for surgeon 3). Of the 27 decision points, only 5 (19%) were identified by all 3 surgeon experts. The percentage of decision points identified varied by surgeon expert (78% for surgeon 1, 59% for surgeon 2, and 48% for surgeon 3). When asked to identify key teaching points, the surgeon experts were more likely to identify operative steps for junior residents (9 operative steps and 6 decision points) and decision points for senior residents (4 operative steps and 13 decision points) (P < .01). ConclusionsCTA can deconstruct the essential operative steps and decision points associated with performing a laparoscopic appendectomy. These results provide a framework to identify key teaching principles to guide intraoperative instruction. These learning objectives could be used to guide resident level–appropriate teaching of an essential general surgery procedure.

Elicitation by critiquing as a cognitive task analysis methodology

This paper describes elicitation by critiquing (EBC) as a cognitive task analysis (CTA) methodology. EBC takes advantage of the ability to analyze another’s task performance, a necessary skill for all domains. This technique can be used to help address some barriers to CTA methods such as domain access restrictions, frequency and predictability of observable and self-reported events, and difficulties in recruiting domain experts to participate. The technique enables controlled presentation of problem stimuli in order to obtain repeated measuring of the same task from multiple participants. To investigate this method, our team performed a CTA of inferential analysis using the EBC technique. Specifically, we observed six expert intelligence analysts critiquing a trainee analyzing the Ariane 501 launch failure. A second trainee was critiqued for reference. The method can be combined with other CTA methods to build knowledge about a domain, can be considered as an addition to participatory design methods, and can be varied depending on the domain being investigated.

Situation Awareness Oriented Design: From User's Cognitive Requirements to Creating Effective Supporting Technologies

Situation awareness is a fundamental construct driving human decision making in complex, dynamic environments. By creating designs that enhance an operator's awareness of what is happening in a given situation, decision making and performance can improve dramatically. The Situation Awareness-Oriented Design process provides a means to improve human decision-making and performance through optimizing situation awareness. This method has been used to develop and evaluate system design concepts in aviation, medical and information intelligence operations. It features three main components: SA Requirements Analysis, SA-Oriented Design Principles, and SA Measurement and Validation. This design process is user-centered, and derived from a detailed analysis of the goals, decisions and situation awareness requirements of the operator derived through a Cognitive Task Analysis methodology called Goal-Directed Task Analysis. The development of tool suites for supporting high levels of situation awareness in military command and control are presented to illustrate the use of the SA-Oriented Design process for translating the results of cognitive task analyses into to user-centered system designs.

The use of protocol analysis for determining ability requirements for personnel selection on a computer-based task

Abstract The role of cognitively oriented tasks in the workplace continues to increase as automation of physical task components advances. Difficulties in automating the operator's cognitive processes have placed a renewed emphasis on the human component in advanced manufacturing systems. While traditional task analysis techniques have made significant contributions to improving productivity when important task elements are visually observable, their focus on manual task procedures make them less effective for cognitively oriented activities. This research has made a first attempt at integrating techniques from several disciplines to develop a cognitive task analysis methodology. The utility of this combined approach is examined for a new system being tested in the United States Postal Service. This task requires operators to encode, via a keyboard, addresses presented on a video display terminal. Results support the hypothesis that, for cognitively oriented tasks, a consensus based analysis technique (the Position Analysis Questionnaire) can be significantly improved by including data from task analysis provided the methodology is suitable for identifying non-physical task components.