COGNITIVE ERGONOMICS - ITS ALL IN THE MIND

In this paper a distinction is made between classical ergonomics as de aling with the quality of working and cognitive ergonomics as dealing with the quality of work including the joint system products. It is ar gued that classical ergonomics can be seen as embracing a dualism, whe re the effects of work on the body are considered separately from the effects of work on the mind. This continues the mechanistic tradition of Western psychology. The aim of cognitive ergonomics is to describe (1) how work affects the mind, as well as (2) how the mind affects wor k. Work is all in the mind in the sense that the quality of work depen ds on the person's understanding of the situation (goals, means, const raints) and in the sense that the design of a worksystem depends on th e designer's understanding, in particular the conceptualization of the people in the system. In cognitive ergonomics, the reliability of per formance - and in particular the reliability of cognition - become cen tral issues. The differences between classical and cognitive ergonomic s are illustrated by considering two typical areas: risks at work and human-computer interaction. It is concluded that classical and cogniti ve ergonomics represent two complementary views of work that must be c ombined to meet the challenges of present day work environments.