What could they have been thinking? how sociotechnical system design influences cognition: A case study of the stockwell shooting

Understanding why an individual acted in a certain way is of fundamental importance to the human factors community, especially when the choice of action results in an undesirable outcome. This challenge is typically tackled by applying retrospective interview techniques to generate models of what happened, recording deviations from a 'correct procedure'. While such approaches may have great utility in tightly constrained procedural environments, they are less applicable in complex sociotechnical systems that require individuals to modify procedures in real time to respond to a changing environment. For complex sociotechnical systems, a formative approach is required that maps the information available to the individual and considers its impact on performance and action. A context-specific, activity-independent, constraint-based model forms the basis of this approach. To illustrate, an example of the Stockwell shooting is used, where an innocent man, mistaken for a suicide bomber, was shot dead. Transferable findings are then presented. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.