Joint Cognitive Systems

Shaping the Condi tions of Observation 53

sources of failures in the field of practice [systemic vulnerab ilities] and

on miscon ceptions of what practitioners a ctually do .

Bar ley & Orr, 1997, p. 18, emphasis added

As one orchestrate s a series of investig ations, a s in the program of research

developed by Sarter, there is a v ariety of pitfalls that must be evaded. The most

basi c pitfall is what W illiam James (1890), over 100 years ago, called the

Psychologis t’s Fallacy. Updated to today, this fallacy occurs when well-intentioned

observers think that their distant view of the workplace captures the actual

experience of those who perform work in context. Distant views can miss important

aspects of the actual work situation and thus can miss