Task analysis
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Task analysis is the analysis of how a task is accomplished, including a detailed description of both manual and mental activities, task and element durations, task frequency, task allocation, task complexity, environmental conditions, necessary clothing and equipment, and any other unique factors involved in or required for one or more humans to perform a given task.
This information can then be used for many purposes, such as personnel selection and training, tool or equipment design, procedure design (e.g., design of checklists or decision support systems) and automation.
The term "task" is often used interchangeably with activity or process. Task analysis is often results in a hierarchical representation of what steps it takes to perform a task for which there is a goal and for which there is some lowest-level "action" that is performed. Task analysis is often performed by human factors professionals.
Task analysis may be of manual tasks, such as bricklaying, and be analyzed as time and motion studies using concepts from industrial engineering. Cognitive task analysis is applied to modern work environments such as supervisory control where little physical works occurs, but the tasks are more related to situation assessment, decision making, and response planning and execution.
Task analysis is also used in education. It is a model that is applied to classroom tasks to discover which curriculum components are well matched to the capabilities of students with learning disabilities and which task modification might be necessary. It discovers which tasks a person hasn't mastered, and the information processing demands of tasks that are easy or problematic. In behavior modification, it is a breakdown of a complex behavioral sequence into steps. This often serves as the basis for Chaining.
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[edit] Task Analysis: Data Collection
The analyst will often directly observe tasks performed by practitioners (as in ethnographic studies) and may audio-tape and videotape actual task performance. A more controlled study may be done in a laboratory, as in experimental psychology, where the practitioner may work with a simulation of the real task environment. An analysis of actual work procedures, manuals, etc. is also valuable.
[edit] Task Analysis: Representational Forms
There are a wide variety of ways to represent tasks. A common method of analysis and resulting diagram is a Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA), which is a part-whole decomposition of the overall task. A flowchart is another common diagram that results from a task analysis.
[edit] Computational Models of Cognitive Task Performance
A number of computational cognitive modeling frameworks exist that can be used to model more details of generative mechanisms of cognitive performance of tasks. Such frameworks include GOMS, MIDAS, ACT-R, and Soar.
[edit] Task Analysis versus Work Domain Analysis
If task analysis is likened to a set of instructions on how to navigate from point A to point B, then work domain analysis (WDA) is like having a map of the terrain that includes Point A and Point B (see Lintern, 2005). WDA is broader and focuses on the environmental constraints and opportunities for behavior, as in Gibsonian ecological psychology and ecological interface design.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further Reading
- Crandall, B., Klein, G., and Hoffman, R. (2006). Working minds: A practitioner's guide to cognitive task analysis. MIT Press.
- Kirwan, B. and Ainsworth, L. (Eds.) (1992). A guide to task analysis. Taylor and Francis.
[edit] External links
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