| Editor Blurb Editor Blurb continued Email address Human-Centered Computing (2008) | |||||||||||||
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| If we engineer complex cognitive systems on the basis of mistaken or inappropriate views of cognition, we can wind up designing systems that degrade performance rather than improve it. The results stemming from the application of any cognitive systems engineering methodology will be incomplete unless they include a description of the cognition that is needed to accomplish the work. The concept of macrocognition is a way of describing cognitive work as it naturally occurs. Definition Macrocognition is a term coined by Pietro Cacciabue and Erik Hollnagel to indicate a level of description of the cognitive functions that are performed in natural (versus artificial laboratory) decision-making settings. 1,2 Traditionally, cognitive researchers have conducted lab experiments on topics such as puzzle solving, serial versus parallel attentional mechanisms, and other standard laboratory paradigms for psychological research. We term these microcognition because they are aimed at investigating the building blocks of cognition, the processes that we believe are invariant and serve as the basis for all kinds of thinking and perceiving. In contrast, the methodology for macrocognition focuses on the world outside the lab. This includes contexts designated by such terms as the “field setting,” the “natural laboratory, ” and the “real world. ” 3 Key features of cognition in naturalistic contexts include the following: | |||||||||||||
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