Question

If you had the opportunity to apply either cognitive ergonomics concepts or physical ergonomics concepts to your current work situation (or a past work situation if you are not currently working), and you were provided further training on each concept, which would you choose, and why? As part of your answer, describe the work environment you are in – office setting, production floor, service environment, etc.

Answer 1

Cognitive ergonomics concept describes the fit between human cognitive abilities and the capacity of the machine or the environment in which the human operates. On the other hand, physical ergonomics concept deals with the human body’s response to the environmental conditions in the workplace such as physical or physiological demands.

The organization that I worked is a multinational publishing company which publishes scholarly journals and articles. The traditional publication process takes 28 days to publish an article with full citation. My company adopted to new technologies to speed-up the publication of journals and articles to combat competition. Among the two concepts, I would choose cognitive ergonomics because the new technology software interface was developed and the ease of its use was also a main factor in using the application. Hence, cognitive ergonomics is the best suitable concept for the company.