Untangling Cognitive Processes Underlying Knowledge Work

Abstract: In a post-industrial society, the workplace is dominated primarily by Knowledge Work, which is achieved mostly through human cognitive processing, such as analysis, comprehension, evaluation, and decision-making. Many of these processes have limited support from technology in the same way that physical tasks have been enabled through a host of tools from hammers to shovels and hydraulic lifts. To develop a suite of cognitive tools, we first need to understand which processes humans use to complete work tasks. In the past century several classifications (e.g., Blooms) of cognitive processes have emerged, and we assessed their viability as the basis for designing tools that support cognitive work. This study re-used an existing data set composed of interviews of environmental scientists about their core work. While the classification uncovered many instances of cognitive process, the results showed that the existing cognitive process classifications do not provide a sufficiently comprehensive deconstruction of the human cognitive processes; the work is quite simply too abstract to be operational.