Mixed Processes in Process Control

This chapter identifies how implicit and explicit processes influence the performance of human operators in industrial process control. The primary focus is on operators as diagnosticians of system failures because this is a major role that is played by this class of personnel in this setting. Little has been written that specifically deals with explicit and implicit processes and their development outside of the laboratory. This may in part be due to the uncertainty that exists with regard to the true nature of explicit and implicit processes (Seger, 1994) such that conceptual clarification must precede application. Alternatively, it is possible that most complex tasks have components that require the implementation of both implicit and explicit knowledge (Berry & Dienes, 1993) and to study these processes in situ is impossible and requires tight experimental control. Thus, rather than providing a review of existing research that has directly addressed the role of implicit and explicit processes in process control, this chapter explores the potential applications of emergent knowledge with a view to understanding and, perhaps, enhancing one aspect of human performance in this industrial setting namely, fault diagnosis.