This article aims to describe the evolution of the conceptual field of cognitive systems engineering (CSE), to discuss its epistemological foundations and to verify the coherence of CSE with the nature of the problems that are investigated. Toward this aim, this work presents a literature review of the historical development of CSE and characterizes five common approaches in CSE research. The results indicate that studies in CSE have, as a rule, assumed the individual or the technical system to be the unit of analysis, ignoring important opportunities in the investigation of the interactions among human, work, and artifacts. A new research agenda is proposed based on an analysis of three assumptions: a cognitive system should not be assumed to be a Cartesian-Newtonian machine, which has clear cause-and-effect relationships; a cognitive system cannot be modeled with precision and perfection; and the investigation of cognitive systems should focus on emergent phenomena related to the interactions among human, work, and technological artifacts.
Cognitive systems engineering; Complex socio-technical systems; Possibilities for a research agenda
