ABSTRACT
The discipline of human factors has traditionally been informed by a variety of different research approaches, spanning controlled experimental studies to research ‘in the wild’. There has however been little work investigating the relationship between observable behaviours and subjective reports. This paper examines the potential for applying a structured approach to collection of data in a range of contexts to enable increased use of observed behaviours in informing human factors theory. Two cases are presented from the domains of rail control and air traffic control. Some evidence for relationships between observed behaviour and cognitive state is presented along with suggestions that individuals differ in the extent to which their cognitive states are ‘observable’.
