ABSTRACT
In naturalistic decision making, analysts are frequently interested in studying how people in a particular field make decisions in complex, dynamic, real-time environments. Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is often used for this purpose. Cognitive task analysis addresses a central and longstanding difficulty in a diverse number of fields: the need to capture the knowledge and processing used by experts in performing their jobs. In this chapter, we first consider the emergence of CTA, and attempt to define what most people mean by the term. Then we provide a generic description of CTA, and very briefly describe several representative CTA methods. Finally, we conclude with a brief review of issues that emerged during the panel discussion—issues that are central questions as analysts and researchers work to further develop cognitive task analysis methods.
