Human Co-Agency withTechnical Systems:Investigations of ModellingFrameworks

This thesis is about the conceptual frameworks and models that we use to understand human performance in technical work situations. It represents both theoretical and empirical approaches to the issue of how we can conceptualize the human operator as a controller embedded in an environment with technical applications. The thesis starts with an experimental test of ergonomics recommendations (Article I) that many designers use to design control input devices in technical interfaces (e.g. Kroemer & Grandjean, 1997). The article shows, by using measures of goal-directed use (rather than static tasks), that the adherence to ergonomics recommendations may not necessarily entail good or optimal performance. This also means that the models we use to design for human performance must take into account the dynamic nature of the task performance, rather than static factors of that work performance. The thesis then continues with a phenomenologically inspired conceptualization of the human mind as an embodied agent aimed towards controlling actions in the world (Article II). This view is then implicitly brought on into observations of high-speed craft navigation and manoeuvring, where the human operator’s control strategies are investigated (Article III). The last article (Article IV) is a direct continuation of the observations of high-speed craft operation and presents video recordings from conversations during navigational exercises. The article discusses the use of the control situation framework to model the operator’s models. The adaptation of expert operators is accountable to an ecological affinity which reflects perception-action based experience with the manoeuvring of the high-speed craft in question. Taken together, these articles show a time-line of the building up of a dynamic model of the human controller that is embedded in a world consisting of ever-increasing technical complexity. The focus in the articles in this thesis (except for Article IV) is primarily on the operators and the understanding  of the operators’ perspective as a situated agent that is immersed in the unfolding co-agency of technology, environment and humans. The operator's understanding and conceptualization of the given situations that unfold in technically mediated work are of critical importance when it comes to understanding how one should model the operator. The problem lies in apprehending the operator's experience as it affects, and are affected by, the dynamic work flow of the joint cognitive system. The overarching aspect these articles point to the need to model the human operator as both seperated and integrated part of the technical syste