ABSTRACT

Electronics expertise has been an object of study within cognitive science for a variety of reasons. It is seen by many as a critical need in our high technology economy. We are often frustrated by failures of consumer electronic devices, and we fear inadequacies of electronics maintenance in the common services on which we depend, such as air travel and the telephone. Further, because many computer science departments originated as subdivisions of electrical engineering departments, many computer scientists have had some training in electronics—they study what they know.