Cognitively Engineering Coordination in Emergency Management
Adam Stork, Tony Lambie and John Long
Ergonomics and HCI Unit,
University College London,
26 Bedford Way, London,
WC1H 0AP, UK
ABSTRACT
The Hidden (1992) investigation into the Clapham Junction train accident recommended that the coordination of the emergency services be improved through training. This research proposes a framework for developing Cognitive Engineering design knowledge to support effective training of coordination between the emergency services. This paper describes this framework and illustrates it by outlining a conception of training and a conception of coordination mechanisms.
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
PANELS
KEYWORDS:
Cognitive Engineering, Coordination, Emergency Management, Training
ENGINEERING
Engineering distinguishes between research which is exploratory, but might (or might not) be of value to design knowledge, for example science knowledge, and research which is intended to acquire validated 'engineering' knowledge which directly supports the design of effective systems.
In this research the aim is to develop validated engineering knowledge to support the design of effective training systems for coordination in emergency management. This short paper describes and illustrates a framework to attain this research aim. The illustrations are drawn from research which analysed the coordination between the emergency services in the Severn Tunnel train accident.
DEVELOPING COGNITIVE ENGINEERING DESIGN KNOWLEDGE To be validated (and, therefore, effective), cognitive engineering design knowledge needs to be (Dowell and Long, 1989): conceptualised with respect to effective HCI design; operationalised with respect to this conception; generalised with respect to this conception; and tested to ensure likelihood of successful application.
The research started with the following informal expression (IE) of some (substantive) cognitive engineering design knowledge with potential (e.g. Hidden, 1992) to be validated.
'Computerised training in emergency management should train those
coordination mechanisms that can be identified in emergency management
ineffectiveness'
To attempt to validate the IE, the project: enhanced a conception of (substantive) cognitive engineering design knowledge (Stork and Long, 1994, based on Dowell and Long, 1989); conceptualised in detail additional components required by the IE, particularly 'training', 'coordination mechanisms', and 'emergency management ineffectiveness'; 'proto-operationalised' the emergency management component of the IE by analysing coordination incidents in the Severn Tunnel rail accident (analysis of training came later in the project); and generalised over the proto- operationalisations. 'Proto-' indicates that the Severn Tunnel rail accident is not a design situation, and that the IE would still need to be operationalised and tested in design. The conceptions of training and coordination mechanisms are outlined below to illustrate this framework.
CONCEPTION OF TRAINING
Figure 1:Conception of training
Figure 1 shows the conception of training graphically. The current and desired domain and worksystem to be improved by training are included to permit the performance of the training to refer to the current and designed performance of the worksystem to be improved by training, in this case the coordination of the emergency services.
CONCEPTION OF COORDINATION MECHANISMS
Coordination mechanisms were conceptualised as h
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