Human factors contributions to knowledge elicitation
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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Evidence-based Knowledge Synthesis and Hypothesis Validation: Navigating Biomedical Knowledge Bases via Explainable AI and Agentic Systems
Published on: June 13, 2025
1Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL 32502-6008, USA. rhoffman@ihmc.us
Objective:
The objective of this article is to lay out contributions of human factors to knowledge elicitation (KE) methodology.
Background:
The background is historical, dating to about 1985, and involves the convergence of expert systems with applied psychology and cognitive psychology.
Method:
The method is a literature review, focusing on past issues of Human Factors.
Results:
Human factors researchers have contributed significantly to KE methodology. However, KE methodology "belongs to" a number of communities of practice and has applications that transcend individual disciplines.
Conclusion:
Knowledge elicitation, thought of as a kind of cognitive task analysis, grows in importance with the increasing use of information technology to form complex sociotechnical work systems and the increasing importance of expertise to knowledge-based organizations.
Application:
I discuss some open issues for further research and methodological investigation.
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