Abstract
Researchers and domain practitioners have identified macrocognition functions that characterize work in complex domains. These functions provide a broad conceptual lens to aid description and thematic analysis of overwhelming, messy, interrelated observational and interview data from cognitive field research. In this article, an integrated theoretical framework is proposed for five macrocognition functions: detecting problems, sensemaking, re-planning, deciding, and coordinating. An example of each function is provided, from observations during the 76th Space Shuttle (STS-76) mission.

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Acknowledgments
We thank Drs. David Woods, Gary Klein, Emilie Roth, and Nancy Cooke for a number of stimulating discussions about macrocognition and macrocognitive functions, from which many of the ideas presented in this article originated. A colleague, Dr. Jennifer Watts-Perotti, conducted ethnographic observations and interviews during the STS-76 mission and analyzed many of the examples described in this paper. Numerous colleagues also contributed to the elicitation and understanding of other examples used in prior versions of this paper, including David Woods, Marta Render, Richard Cook, Patricia Ebright, Stoney Trent, Martin Voshell, and Jennifer Watts-Perotti. This research was partially supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (S110000012) and the Office of Naval Research (N00014-08-1-0676). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of the air force or the navy.
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Patterson, E.S., Hoffman, R.R. Visualization framework of macrocognition functions. Cogn Tech Work 14, 221–227 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-011-0208-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-011-0208-1