How to collect data about cognitive processes and events, how to
analyze CTA findings, and how to communicate them effectively: a
handbook for managers, trainers, systems analysts, market researchers,
health professionals, and others.
Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) helps researchers understand how cognitive
skills and strategies make it possible for people to act effectively and
get things done. CTA can yield information people need--employers faced
with personnel issues, market researchers who want to understand the
thought processes of consumers, trainers and others who design
instructional systems, health care professionals who want to apply
lessons learned from errors and accidents, systems analysts developing
user specifications, and many other professionals. CTA can show what
makes the workplace work--and what keeps it from working as well as it
might.
Working Minds is a true handbook, offering a set of tools for doing
CTA: methods for collecting data about cognitive processes and events,
analyzing them, and communicating them effectively. It covers both the
why and the how of CTA methods, providing examples, guidance, and
stories from the authors' own experiences as CTA practitioners. Because
effective use of CTA depends on some conceptual grounding in cognitive
theory and research--on knowing what a cognitive perspective can
offer--the book also offers an overview of current research on
cognition.
The book provides detailed guidance for planning and carrying out CTA,
with chapters on capturing knowledge and capturing the way people
reason. It discusses studying cognition in real-world settings and the
challenges of rapidly changing technology. And it describes key issues
in applying CTA findings in a variety of fields. Working Minds makes the
methodology of CTA accessible and the skills involved attainable.
