Human factors contributions to knowledge elicitation

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to lay out contributions of human factors to knowledge elicitation (KE) methodology. BACKGROUND: The background is historical, dating to about 1985, and involves the convergence of expert systems with applied psychology and cognitive psychology. METHOD: The method is a literature review, focusing on past issues of Human Factors. RESULTS: Human factors researchers have contributed significantly to KE methodology. However, KE methodology "belongs to" a number of communities of practice and has applications that transcend individual disciplines. CONCLUSION: Knowledge elicitation, thought of as a kind of cognitive task analysis, grows in importance with the increasing use of information technology to form complex sociotechnical work systems and the increasing importance of expertise to knowledge-based organizations. APPLICATION: I discuss some open issues for further research and methodological investigation.