Cognitive Barriers to Understanding Complexity in Human-Technical Systems: Evidence from Engineering Students and Practitioners

理解人类技术系统复杂性的认知障碍：来自工程专业学生和从业者的证据

• 批准号: 1824594
• 负责人: Konstantinos Triantis
• 金额: $ 40.32万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-15 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1824594&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cognitive; Barriers; Understanding; Complexity; Human

According to the National Academy of Engineering, poor understanding of complex human-technical systems, i.e., systems that have many interacting parts, has been a major cause of "man made disasters" that include, for example, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Various studies show that even well-schooled engineers have difficulty understanding basic concepts of complex human-technical systems. This research will provide insights of the important cognitive (e.g. reasoning, thinking) skills for the understanding of complex systems for both engineering students and working professionals. Examples of cognitive barriers are for example, the experts' tendency to look at details at the expense of looking at the big picture, and the human tendency to focus on short-term as opposed to the long-term outcomes, among others. This research will address the needs of industry and government to educate and develop complex problem solvers for the US workforce so that the US maintains its economic competitiveness, national security, and position as a global leader in innovation. Given that engineers design, build and manage human-technical systems throughout their careers, it is important to study the effect of the cognitive barriers during and after their formal education. From an educational point of view, the research will integrate the results into engineering courses, case studies, team assignments and simulation platforms. From an outreach point of view, the research will use the results for the design and offering of company, government agency, and University workshops.This is a multi-disciplinary project, which lies at the intersection of complex systems and engineering education and will study undergraduate students with different educational experiences as well as professionals with different work experiences. Central conceptualizations of systems thinking is the focus on understanding the workings of complex interconnected socio-technical systems. In our project, our specific definition aligns with the system dynamics school of thought, which provides established methods for analyzing system behavior whose final behavior over time might be counter-intuitive. The research assumes that engineers can recognize and manage system complexity and that classroom education and field experiences can be essential for learning how to understand complex systems. The central research hypothesis is that education in engineering programs and real world experiences influence (positively or negatively) engineers' understanding of complex systems. In order to investigate the main hypothesis, four specific research questions (RQ1-RQ4) are studied. Three vignettes with different levels of structuredness and complexity representing engineering tasks will be used. The research questions are as follows: RQ1: What is the relationship between engineering students'/professionals' level of education/expertise and their performance on three vignettes that vary with respect to problem structuredness and complexity? RQ2: What is the relationship between engineering students'/professionals' perceptions of their own systems thinking competencies and their performance on three vignettes that vary with respect to problem structuredness and complexity? RQ3: How do engineering students and professionals differ in their approaches to solving problems that vary with respect to problem stucturedness and complexity? and RQ4: How do engineering students and professionals describe how and where they developed their cognitive skills of understanding complex systems?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

据美国国家工程院（National Academy of Engineering）称，对复杂的人类技术系统（即包含许多相互作用部分的系统）理解不足，是“人为灾难”的主要原因，其中包括福岛第一核电站事故和墨西哥湾深水地平线漏油事件。各种研究表明，即使是受过良好教育的工程师也很难理解复杂的人类技术系统的基本概念。这项研究将为工程专业学生和工作专业人员提供重要的认知（例如推理，思考）技能的见解，以理解复杂系统。认知障碍的例子包括，专家倾向于关注细节而忽视大局，人类倾向于关注短期而不是长期结果，等等。这项研究将满足行业和政府的需求，为美国劳动力培养和培养复杂问题的解决者，从而保持美国的经济竞争力、国家安全和全球创新领导者的地位。鉴于工程师在其整个职业生涯中设计、构建和管理人类技术系统，研究认知障碍在其正规教育期间和之后的影响是很重要的。从教育的角度来看，研究将把结果整合到工程课程、案例研究、团队作业和模拟平台中。从外展的角度来看，研究结果将用于公司，政府机构和大学研讨会的设计和提供。这是一个多学科的项目，处于复杂系统和工程教育的交叉点，将研究不同教育经历的本科生和不同工作经历的专业人员。系统思维的中心概念化是关注于理解复杂的相互关联的社会技术系统的运作。在我们的项目中，我们的具体定义与系统动力学思想学派保持一致，该学派为分析系统行为提供了既定的方法，随着时间的推移，系统行为的最终行为可能是反直觉的。该研究假设工程师能够识别和管理系统的复杂性，课堂教育和实地经验对于学习如何理解复杂系统是必不可少的。研究的核心假设是，工程项目教育和现实世界经验会（积极或消极地）影响工程师对复杂系统的理解。为了探究主要假设，我们研究了四个具体的研究问题（RQ1-RQ4）。将使用三个具有不同结构和复杂程度的小插图来表示工程任务。研究问题如下：RQ1：工程专业学生/专业人员的教育水平/专业知识水平与他们在三个问题结构和复杂性不同的小问题上的表现之间的关系是什么？RQ2：工程专业学生/专业人员对自己的系统思维能力的看法与他们在三个小问题上的表现之间的关系是什么？这些小问题在问题的结构性和复杂性方面有所不同。RQ3：工科学生和专业人士在解决问题的方法上有什么不同，这些问题的结构化和复杂性是不同的？RQ4：工科学生和专业人士如何描述他们是如何以及在哪里发展他们理解复杂系统的认知技能的？该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Comparing Self-Report Assessments and Scenario-Based Assessments of Systems Thinking Competence

比较系统思维能力的自我报告评估和基于情景的评估

• DOI: 10.1007/s10956-023-10027-2
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Journal of Science Education and Technology
• 影响因子: 4.4
• 作者: Davis, Kirsten A.;Grote, Dustin;Mahmoudi, Hesam;Perry, Logan;Ghaffarzadegan, Navid;Grohs, Jacob;Hosseinichimeh, Niyousha;Knight, David B.;Triantis, Konstantinos
• 通讯作者: Triantis, Konstantinos