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When reviewing the research path of an author, we are inevitably influenced by our own background and approach. Tracing back the converging and diverging assumptions of the authors with respect to Erik Hollnagel's research path, the paper focuses on the evolution of cognitive psychology as resulting from an original distinction between two models of human cognition: the first one more in line with the behaviourist tradition and the latter with the cybernetic and ecological approach. The former, which becomes dominant in the development of cognitive psychology, marginalizes some aspects that prove crucial in the latter. The concepts of anticipation and of intentional behaviour, together with the notion of variability of normal performance, are traditionally part of the cybernetic and ecological approach to cognitive psychology. These concepts have also been central in the development of the ergonomic analysis of work activities. Throughout the Resilience Engineering perspective, the two models of human cognition are brought closer, while the concept of competence is sketched as a possible mediator to a ''positive'' approach to Human Factors and Safety.

In this study we compare the efficacy of three driver's performance indicators based on lateral deviation in detecting significant on-road performance degradations while interacting with a secondary task: the High Frequency Component of steering wheel (HFC), and two indicators described in ISO/DIS 26022 (2007): the Normative and the Adapted Lane Change Test (LCT). Sixteen participants were asked to perform a simulated lane-change task while interacting, when required, with a visual search task with two levels of difficulty. According to predictions, results showed that the Adapted LCT indicator, taking into consideration individual practices in performing the LCT, succeeded in discriminating between single and dual task conditions. Furthermore, this indicator was also able to detect whether the driver was interacting with an easy or a difficult secondary task. Despite predictions, results did not confirm Normative LCT and HFC to be reliable indicators of performance degradation within the simulated LCT.

As the world population is ageing, studies on the socioeconomic and health consequences are proliferating. Little has been done on the effectiveness and impact elderly may benefit from the use of technology in their everyday life. The pilot study, implemented within a funded project aimed at identifying sustainable actions to promote Seniors' quality of life, intended to investigate this kind of interaction in terms of accessibility and acceptability that senior citizen experience with technological devices promoting motor and cognitive training. In the hypothesis, interfaces and technological artifacts, that still take in little account the seniors' physical characteristics (e.g. physiological limitations in sight, hearing, movement) and cognitive processes (selective memory often driven by practical needs), can cause elderly to mistrust technology. Study participants were twenty over seventy-year-old people, who were observed and interviewed in context in a two-hour training session regarding the technological devices user experience. The results are presented with scenario-based techniques that help represent typologies of users in different use situations. Findings confirm the hypothesis, highlighting that elderly may accept technological artifacts when they perceive them as bringing benefits in terms of well-being and health.