Dowell, John; (1993) Cognitive engineering and the rationalisation of the flight strip. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Cognitive Engineering has been advocated as the discipline which could ensure the effective use of interactive computing technologies. Yet Cognitive Engineering currently exists only as an idea; the present day design of cognitive tools and work is a much more informal practice. Development of the Air Traffic Management system typifies current practices of cognitive design. The informality and inconsistent success of those practices is particularly apparent in efforts made to replace the paper flight progress strip with an interactive software system. Controllers use the flight strip in monitoring, planning and controlling traffic movements, and so far, all attempts to design its replacement have met with rejection. This thesis is intended to contribute towards a Cognitive Engineering discipline. The idea of Cognitive Engineering is first investigated and essential components of the discipline identified. One component is a 'conception'; this is a technical expression of the discipline's ontology. A conception would provide the general concepts needed for reasoning about cognitive design problems. A second component is 'exemplars'; these are formulations of particular cognitive design problems - formulations which use, and so exemplify, the conception. The thesis proposes a conception for Cognitive Engineering, and then constructs an exemplar. The exemplar is a formulation of the Cognitive Engineering design problem of a reconstructed Air Traffic Management system. Finally, the thesis investigates how the design issues of the paper flight strip could be rationalised as a better basis for designing an interactive software system in the short-term. The research demonstrates how the exemplar can be used to rationalise the flight strip design issues in the case of the reconstructed system.

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