ABSTRACT
The expertise of operators of complex dynamic processes expresses itself in the operators’ ability to interpret the process situation on the basis of mediated and often uncertain information of the process. An orientation-based approach was developed to study mastery of this demand from the point of view of operators’ diagnostic and prognostic decision making. According to this approach, in problem solving situations, operators adopt qualitatively different orientations towards the target process. It is, further, supposed that differences in orientations correlate with differences in action strategies and efficiency of actual process control performance and, perhaps, even with differences in the acquisition of the mastery of the target process in the long run. The results of the studies reported in the paper give tentative partial support to these assumptions. As relatively stable regulatory structures orientations would effect operators’ decisions both in regard with normal and disturbance situations. Thus, this framework opens up a coherent way to investigate activities under these, seemingly polarized conditions, promoting understanding of the development of operators’ expertise in daily work.
