Cognitive Science versus Cognitive Ergonomics: A dynamic tension or an inevitable schism?

A dynamic tension or an inevitable schism? [Review of the book Expertise and technology: Cognition and human-computer cooperation]. Contemporary Psychology, 41(6), 592-539. In their foreword, the editors give a nod toward the " internationally based human-computer interaction (HCI) community, at the level of research as well as at the level of application " (p. xi). This is the community to which the reviewers belong and as such we eagerly awaited this volume of chapters reporting on the work of the mainly European " large-system " cognitive ergonomics community. After witnessing first-hand the excitement and challenge of applying cognitive theory to HCI, we were more than a little curious as to the successes of and challenges to cognitive theory when it is applied to larger scale applications. Alas, for the most part, we were disappointed. While this book contains several excellent chapters, on the whole we came away with the impression of a community that has isolated itself from mainstream cognitive theory and has little interest in testing or contributing to that theory. Indeed, it is not clear for whom, other than the large-systems community, this book is intended. It is heavily laden with jargon and makes little attempt to establish contact with any other tradition. In addition, the book is somewhat " user-unfriendly " containing a meager 2.5 page subject index and no author index (references are listed only at the end of the chapter in which they are cited). Although our review of the book is primarily negative, several of the chapters are quite good and would justify having your library buy it.