ABSTRACT
Cognitive task analysis may be defined as an approach that ‘determines the mental processes and skills required to perform a task at high proficiency levels and the changes that occur as skills develop’ (Redding 1992:3). CTA is appropriate for tasks that are cognitively complex (requiring an extensive knowledge base, complex inferences and judgement) and which take place in a ‘complex, dynamic, uncertain, real-time environment’ (Gordon 1995:528). CTA may be carried out using a wide variety of techniques. The most commonly used techniques, according to Redding and Seamster (1994), include cognitive interviewing, protocol analysis, scaling techniques such as multidimensional scaling (MDS), neural network modelling, computer simulations, and error analysis.
