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Published on: November 9, 2016
The heuristic version of Cognitive Work Analysis: A first application to medical emergency situations
Thierry Morineau1, John M Flach2
1Université Bretagne Sud, Laboratoire Psychologie, Cognition, Communication, Comportement, Campus de Tohannic, F56000, Vannes, France.
Abstract:
Cognitive Work Analysis is an original method that seeks to describe work systems made up of nested sets of constraints, from ecological constraints imposed by the work domain to cognitive constraints. This top-down approach starts with a work domain model in order to analyze and specify contexts of activity. To complement this method, we propose a bottom-up version of Cognitive Work Analysis focusing on contexts of activity and depicting how operators adapt to the ecological constraints. Based on Rasmussen's Dynamic Safety Model, the ecological constraints involved are those bounding the workspace in which operators dynamically navigate with control loops, strategies, work organization, and competencies. This analysis relies on the simulation of specific contexts of activity. A first illustrative application of this framework to a simulated medical emergency situation with a team of nurses and nursing aids shows that this framework can help identify design issues.
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