In this class students explore cognition in the wild where teams of competent practitioners must handle evolving problems given the constraints of wild habitats such as aircraft cockpits, maritime navigation, surgical operating rooms and fire control. Cognitive artifacts are ubiquitous in the wild. So one focus is research on how practitioners shape the tools they use. Research methodologies useful to the study of cognition in the wild are examined and contrasted with laboratory techniques. The class relates the psychology of human error to human performance in high consequence systems such as nuclear power and aviation.
Students confront the individual, team and organizational dynamics that are a prelude to disasters.
The students analyze the human role in a past systems disaster. Finally, students use a cognitive systems perspective to consider techniques for preventing errors or enhancing error recovery.