  In traditional production plants, current technologies do not provide
sufficient context to support information integration and interpretation.
Digital transformation technologies have the potential to support
contextualization, but it is unclear how this can be achieved. The present
article reviews psychological literature in four areas relevant to
contextualization: information sampling, integration, categorization, and
causal reasoning. Characteristic biases and limitations of human information
processing are discussed. Based on this literature, we derive functional
requirements for digital transformation technologies, focusing on the cognitive
activities they should support. We then present a selection of technologies
that have the potential to foster contextualization. These technologies enable
the modelling of system relations, the integration of data from different
sources, and the connection of the present situation with historical data. We
illustrate how these technologies can support contextual reasoning and
highlight challenges that should be addressed when designing human-technology
cooperation in cyber-physical production systems.
