MARCO CONCEPTUAL

The individual perspective on sense-making, also called the human centred computing perspective (HCC), is an interdisciplinary research field focussed on describing sense-making as individual cognitive processes of framing data. The aim of HCC is to improve the usability of, or the development of new, computational technologies based on the understanding of the rationale of human cognition (Klein et al., 2006a; Leedom, 2001; Naumer, Fisher, & Dervin, 2008). The HCC perspective is focused on the analysis of information exchange in the human- machine relationship. For example, computers often provide some kind of synthesised or processed information that is a consequence of complex processes generated by the computer system. As most people are often not aware of the processes that computers undertake in order to generate information, they are subject to trusting the technology to help them solve their problems. However, when a person‟s objective of using technology is not met, he or she may question technology and try to find the reason behind the unsatisfactory result. HCC focusses on this type of human-machine relationship by understanding how people make sense of information in order to improve technology information systems (Klein et al., 2006a).

At the individual level, sense-making is described as a cognitive process which occurs when a particular event in the environment forces a person to make sense of their current situation; it involves a retrospective rationalisation in search for meaning and sense of a person‟s actions (Klein, Moon, & Hoffman, 2006b). Sense-making is an ongoing process which involves the development of plausible meanings built on the bracketing of cues from the environment and the interpretation of those cues based on salient frames (Nell & Napier, 2005). In summary, the importance of the HCC perspective on sense-making is that it focusses on the individual process

of data scanning and interpretation which helps to understand how a person makes sense of uncertain events in the environment (Klein et al., 2006b; Weick, 1995). From this perspective, the sense-making process consists of three elements: a frame; a cue; and connections (Klein et al., 2006b; Weick, 1995).

The idea of a “frame” defines the context within which data and information (cues or events) are perceived and processed in order to give a plausible explanation about a particular situation (Klein et al., 2006b). Klein et al. (2006b) suggested that when a person makes sense of a situation, that person begins with some type of perspective, viewpoint, mental model, or framework which helps them explain the situation. Klein et al. (2006b) named this viewpoint a “frame” (p. 88). They argue that people use frames to convert data into information which they use in their decision making. They continue their argument saying even though frames define data, these frames also shape the data a person perceives (for example the introduction of a new regulation over production methods in dairy farms will be perceived differently by farmers, researchers, and individuals from the rest of society). Klein et al. (2006b) also suggest that because of this interaction between data and perception, frames are continuously changing due to learning and the interaction of a person with others.

The terms “cues” and “events” were used by Weick (1995) and Klein et al. (2006b) respectively to define the same concept. Both cues and events (cues from now on) refer to signals for action or stimuli that provide information about what to do. Thus, these cues are perceived data from the environment that trigger sense-making (Shadbolt, 2008; Weick, 1995). The unique characteristic of cues is that they tend to be considered as the factor that captures most of the attention in the environment from which they come from and, therefore, they alone suggest consequences that are more obvious than the environment as a whole (Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005). The most salient point relating to cues is that these act as a trigger of the sense-making process. From this point on, the sense-making process can be seen as a continuous delivered effort to make the connections between these cues and the frames (Klein et al., 2006b; Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005).

Sense-making is an ongoing and delivered process with a starting point that can be set up at the moment a perceived cue is not explained by an individual‟s frame and, therefore, the validity of that frame is questioned (Figure 2.4.5.3). Although sense-making is continuous, this cue is used by Klein et al. (2006b) to separate the sense-making process in two phases: the elaboration cycle

(which occurs before the questioning cue); and the reframing cycle (which occurs after the questioning cue).

Figure 2.4.5.3. The data/frame theory. Source: Klein et al. (2006b)

The elaboration cycle phase involves the active seeking of and inference of data; the discovery of data; and the discovery of the explanations between the data and the situation at the centre of the sense-making in order to build the frame. In this regard, the frame acts as a hypothesis about the connections among the data. In this phase, data is filtered and useless data is discarded; once the connection among the data makes sense, then the frame is preserved. This first phase corresponds with a closed loop in which a mental model is formed;, in this case, the closed loop is backward looking and explanatory (Klein et al., 2006b). The second phase of the sense-making process is the reframing cycle.

This reframing cycle is triggered by the perception of a cue which leads to the questioning of the current frame and to replace it with a new one which gives a more plausible explanation of the situation. In this regard, the reframing cycle is described as a forward closed loop which involves a mental simulation aiming to anticipate plausible similar events in the future (Klein et al., 2006b). This cycle comprises the comparison of different frames in order to determine which one is the most accurate to explain the cues (Klein et al., 2006b). Once this is determined, the frame that makes more sense is retained (Klein et al., 2006b).