A Cognitively-Oriented Approach to Task Analysis and Test Development

Abstract : Clear descriptions of job expertise are required to support applications and improvements in personnel training and job performance. This report describes a practical approach to task analysis which integrates the issues, content, and methods of cognitive science and personnel psychology. Cognitively-oriented task analysis employs a breadth then depth strategy for identifying job expertise. Starting with a task by knowledge framework, job expertise is successively elaborated using interviews, expert ratings, and protocol analyses. The application of task analysis results to the development of written performance measures are described to illustrate the contributions of this approach to measurement validity.