Most experts often fail to explain their professional skills properly.
The US Army was trying to cancel a mine detection system that had been developed for 9 years and cost $40 million. The prototype had a very low mine detection rate in actual tests. According to the test, it showed a miserable result of failing to detect 96% of low-metal anti-personnel mines. Carnegie Mellon University psychology professor James Staszewski went in search of so-called outliers (outstanding people who far exceed the average) in mine detection. One of them was Floyd Rocky Rockwell. He could find low-metal mines with new equipment. However, like most other experts, Floyd could not explain how he could find mines.
At this time, Cognitive Task Analysis can extract expertise from experts.
Professor Staszewski used cognitive task analysis developed over decades to extract his expertise. Floyd did not use the equipment as instructed in the manual. He was not just reacting to sound, but was detecting sound patterns, moving slower than the speed suggested in the manual, using the detector at a lower height than written in the manual, and continuously adjusting the sensitivity switch of the detector. Professor Staszewski conducted an experiment to teach this secret, which Floyd himself was not aware of, to other soldiers for 5 days and measure its effect. Surprisingly, the detection rate, which was in the 10% range before training, exceeded 90% after training.
Using cognitive task analysis, not only programmers and managers but also anyone who wants to become an expert can benefit. The US Navy’s research found that teachers and students who learn this method and use it cooperatively increase the educational effect. Therefore, this method is used in their education.
Cognitive Task Analysis
Cognitive task analysis is a method of analyzing and explaining complex cognitive processes performed by experts or skilled individuals. It is used in tasks where cognitive aspects such as problem-solving, decision-making, memory, and inference are important. This analysis method focuses on systematically understanding how experts process information and make decisions.
Cognitive task analysis is mainly used in the following situations.
- Development of education and training programs: By analyzing how experts perform tasks, effective training programs can be designed for beginners or trainees. For example, in fields such as medicine, aviation, and the military, cognitive task analysis is used to deliver the cognitive strategies used by experts to learners.
- Technology and system design: Cognitive task analysis can be used in human-computer interaction (HCI) or human-centered design to design user interfaces or automation systems in line with the cognitive processes used by experts when designing complex systems.
- Improvement of work procedures: By analyzing the cognitive strategies used by experts, work processes can be improved or optimized. This can increase efficiency and reduce errors.
You can perform cognitive task analysis by following these steps.
- Define the process: Define the goals of the task and the cognitive processes required.
- Task decomposition: Divide the task into small steps and analyze the cognitive processes required in each step.
- Expert interviews and observations: Collect data on how experts actually perform tasks through interviews or observations.
- Cognitive requirements analysis: Analyze how information is processed, attention strategies, memory strategies, etc.
- Apply the results: Apply the analyzed results to education programs, technology design, work procedure improvements, etc.
Cognitive task analysis is a tool that clarifies the unconscious and implicit cognitive processes used by experts in complex tasks, and plays an important role in learning, design, and system optimization.
The Process of Cognitive Task Analysis
Let’s take a closer look at the process of performing cognitive task analysis.
1. Goal Setting
This is the step of clearly defining the reasons and goals for performing cognitive task analysis. Cognitive task analysis is mainly used when analyzing tasks that require complex and cognitive aspects, so it is important to clearly define what tasks to analyze and how this analysis can help in education, system design, work improvement, etc.
2. Task Definition and Analysis
This is the step of defining and analyzing the task in detail. Here, you can follow the following procedure.
- Task selection: Select the task (or work) to be analyzed. Tasks that are complex and require cognitive processing are suitable.
- Task decomposition: Divide the entire task into small steps. Identify the actions performed by experts at each step and confirm what cognitive processes (decision-making, memory, inference, etc.) are used.
3. Expert Interviews and Observations
This is the step of observing or interviewing experts to see how they actually perform tasks. This allows you to better understand the implicit knowledge and cognitive processes that occur during task execution. Normally, the following methods are used.
- In-depth interviews: Experts are asked to explain specific work steps and decision-making processes, and their thinking strategies are identified.
- Think-aloud technique: Experts are encouraged to speak out what they are thinking while performing tasks to reveal cognitive processes to the outside.
- Task observation: Directly observe how experts perform tasks and record them. This allows you to clearly identify the task flow and cognitive requirements.
4. Cognitive Requirements Analysis
In this step, you analyze what elements are important in the cognitive processes of experts. Here, you clearly identify the information processing strategy, decision-making process, problem-solving strategies, attention strategies, etc.
- Information processing strategy: Analyze how experts process information.
- Decision-making process: Analyze how experts make decisions and what criteria they use.
- Problem-solving strategies: Analyze how experts solve unexpected problems.
5. Task Modeling
Based on the data collected in the previous step, you create a model that explains the cognitive processes and behaviors of experts. In this step, you describe the task step by step and specify the cognitive requirements that occur at each step. This allows you to formalize the unconscious skills and knowledge used by experts.
6. Results Application
This is the step of applying the analyzed results to actual work improvement, system design, education program development, etc. Based on the analyzed cognitive processes, you can create educational materials to help beginners become more proficient faster, or use them to improve user interfaces in system design.
7. Verification and Feedback
Finally, this is the step of verifying whether the results of cognitive task analysis are actually useful and receiving feedback to improve them. You can evaluate whether the analysis derived from cognitive task analysis is effectively applied to education or system improvement, and if necessary, reanalyze or supplement it.
Conclusion
As seen above, cognitive task analysis is a useful method for clearly understanding the cognitive strategies used by experts and applying them to education, system design, work improvement, etc. In particular, cognitive task analysis can formalize the unconscious knowledge and skills of experts in complex and cognitive-demanding tasks, and use them to convey them to others.
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