The persistency of psychological tools in air traffic management

Abstract

This paper presents the application of cultural-historical concepts to the study of human activity in safety critical systems. The methodological issue we explore is how to better elicit expert knowledge in domains with professional users. In particular, we focus on the contribution of the genetic method to the study of air traffic controllers' cognitive activity of anticipating aircraft trajectories. Our claim is that a culturalhistorical perspective on the nature of expertise can provide useful insights of what constitutes the expertise and in the communication with the domain experts.