Cognitive Task Analysis

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) is a protocol utilizing interviews, observations, and other knowledge elicitation techniques to determine the explicit and implicit knowledge experts use to solve problems or perform complex tasks within their respective domains. CTA attempts to determine the sequence of actions, decisions, classifications, and strategies that enable experts to perform complex tasks with speed and accuracy. By identifying relevant information that may not be captured through other mechanisms, CTA can provide extensive information often used to develop instructional materials, decision support systems, and cognitive ergonomics. This entry discusses the history and varieties of CTA and components of CTA implementation. It then describes instructional design systems using CTA before discussing research evidence on the effectiveness of CTA and CTA-based training.

History of CTA

Task analysis is ...

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