• Research Vision & Mission
• Conceptual Frameworks
  • Cognitive Work Analysis
  • Ecological Interface Design
  • Trust in Automation
  • Risk Management Framework
• Themes & Projects
  • 1 - Theoretical
  • 2 - Empirical
  • 3 - Generalizability
  • 4 - Design Process
  • 5 - Cross Disciplinary
  • 6 - Meta-Scientific
• Research Platforms
  • DURESS II
  • HEPHAISTOS
  • IMMERSIVE
• Project List

Research Vision & Mission

At the Cognitive Engineering Laboratory, our research vision is to design and guide the principled implementation and management of robust sociotechnical systems, leading to demonstrably improved productivity, safety, and quality of life.
Our research mission is to develop and apply cognitive engineering theory to help people adapt to novelty and change in sociotechnical systems.

What is a sociotechnical system?

Sociotechnical systems tend to have the following set of characteristics:

• Rapid change in technology
  • Product life cycles are being reduced dramatically.
• Increasing global competition
  • New products are constantly being introduced, and there is an increase in the diversity of products being made available.
• Increase in capital intensive industries
  • Minimizing lead time and work in progress.
• Change in work demands from psychomotor to cognitive
  • Variability and flexibility are induced by the many degrees of freedom associated with discretionary decision making and problem solving.
• Increasing system complexity and coupling
  • Such systems can lead to life-threatening unanticipated events that require flexible problem solving to improvise a novel solution.
• Uncertainty in state of the world
  • There are many sources of uncertainty (e.g., missing data, noisy data, erroneous data) which, when combined with increasing system complexity, lead to a need for discretionary decision making and therefore adaptation.

Because of these interacting characteristics, complex sociotechnical systems are turbulent and dynamic. To succeed in these environments, workers must adapt to novelty and change.

What is our Theory-Based Approach?

The CEL follows a theory-based systematic approach to address complex problems in sociotechnical systems. To develop a conceptual framework for supporting worker adaptation, it is helpful to first consider two contrasting forms of work organization. The first is a centralized work organization, implemented by designers who conduct a thorough off-line systems analysis to determine the "optimal" way to perform the work. The designers' forethought is then built into procedures and computer-driven workflow that mechanistically guide workers' actions. This is the traditional, Taylorist approach to work design, which allows designers to develop plans for efficient work in closed systems where all effects can be anticipated. However, in a turbulent work environment, many factors simply cannot be anticipated; the means required to achieve system goals can, and often must, change in different situations or contexts. Thus, design frameworks that only support centralized work organizations are not sufficient for turbulent, dynamic work environments.
By contrast, a distributed work organization delegates more responsibility to workers to allow them to make adaptive decisions, on-line in real-time, based on contextualized information about the current situation. This design approach allows a sociotechnical system to achieve its objectives in open environments where demands are unanticipated and dynamic. Delegating responsibility to workers and providing them with contextual information allows them to self-organize by making decisions that are adapted to the contingencies of the local, situated context they are facing. Therefore, distributed work organizations are well suited to the characteristics of turbulent, dynamic work environments.
Several prerequisites must be satisfied to build an effective distributed work organization:

• The objectives to be achieved by the organization must be agreed upon and known.
• Up-to-date information about the state of the world with respect to system objectives must be available.
• Adequate means and resources for achieving the required objectives under all relevant conditions must be made available.
• The relevant competence is required to explore and select the appropriate means for action so that system objectives will be satisfied.

While objectives specify what is to be achieved, and information allows individuals to be coupled to changes in the environment, these must be accompanied by competence and means for individuals to map perceived changes in the environment onto successful adaptive behaviors. The CEL’s theoretical frameworks are intended to ensure these prerequisites are met through the design of sociotechnical systems and work support tools.