Coordination as a distributed cognitive phenomena situated in aircraft cockpits

Authors

  • Éder Henriqson PUCRS
  • Tarcísio Abreu Saurin UFRGS
  • Johan Nicklas Bergstrom Lund University

Keywords:

joint cognitive systems, coordination, distributed and situated cognition, macrocognition.

Abstract

Understanding macrocognitive phenomena, especially the coordination among agents in

complex environments, such as aviation, have gained growing attention from researchers in the field of

human factors. Research works have focused on identifying coordination requirements and the implicit

mechanisms within this process. The present paper aims at describing how coordination may be interpreted

as a situated and distributed cognitive phenomenon in the cockpit of commercial aircrafts. The description of

the phenomenon draws on empirical material collected from a series of studies carried out by the authors

between the years 2007 and 2010, with a focus on the analysis of the activity and the work in cockpits of

modern aircrafts. In this respect, the study starts by integrating the perspective of joint cognitive systems

theory with the four coordination requirements described in the literature: common ground, interpretability,

directivity and synchrony. Automation, along with the pilots, is conceived of as a third cabin agent. As a

1

 

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, College of Aeronautical Sciences, Human Factors & Complex

Systems Laboratory, Brazil, ehenriqson@pucrs.br

2

 

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Industrial Engineering and Transportation Department, Brazil,

saurin@ufrgs.br

3

 

Lund University, Leonardo da Vinci Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking, Sweden,

johan.bergstrom@leonardo.lth.se

Submetido em: Novembro/2010. Aceito em: Dezembro/2010.

Aviation in Focus (Porto Alegre), v. 1, n. 1, p. 58 – 76 ago/dez. 2010 59

result of this integration, four coordination modes in the cockpit, occurring at different flight stages, are

proposed.

Author Biographies

Éder Henriqson, PUCRS

Piloto Comercial de Avião e Agente de Segurança de Vôo. Graduação em Ciências Aeronáuticas (2000) com ênfase em Piloto de Linha Aérea de Avião, Mestrado em Administração e Negócios pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) (2005) e cursa o Doutorado em Engenharia de Produação e Transportes da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), linha de pesquisa Egonomia de Gestão de Segurança. Atualmente é Professor Assistente da Faculdade de Ciências Aeronáuticas da PUC-RS e atua na Pro-reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação (PRPPG) da PUC-RS como Coordenador do Setor de Cursos Lato Sensu. É Líder do Grupo de Pesquisas em Ciências Aeronáuticas e Coordenador do Laboratório de Fatores Humanos e Sistemas Complexos do Centro de Microgravidade da PUCRS. Atua também como Pesquisador Visitante do Leonardo da Vinci Research Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking da Lund University, School of Aviation (Suécia). Exerce, também, as funções de Examinador Credenciado da Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) para operações de RBHA 91 e Facilitador de CRM-Corporate. Tem experiência em ensino e consultoria na área de Transporte Aéreo, Estratégia Empresarial, Treinamento de Pilotos, Segurança Operacional e Fatores Humanos.

Tarcísio Abreu Saurin, UFRGS

Graduação em Engenharia Civil pela Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (1994), mestrado em Engenharia Civil pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1997) e doutorado em Engenharia de Produção pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (2002). Atualmente é professor adjunto III da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul no Departamento de Engenharia de Produção e Transportes. Experiência em Engenharia de Produção, atuando principalmente nas seguintes áreas: gestão da segurança e saúde no trabalho, ergonomia de processo, produção enxuta e gerenciamento de processos na construção civil.

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Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2010): A new voice for aviation

Section

Aviation and Safety/Security

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