Experts in a given field possess knowledge and skills that cannot possibly be captured in anything like a simple check list. Tapping that knowledge requires a sophisticated method.

By using methods of Cognitive Task Analysis, Cognitive Work Analysis and Cognitive Field Research, this research effort is intended to advance our understanding of the "5-percenters" in such domains such as weather forecasting and military command and control. In addition, the research explores the nature of tasks and modes of reasoning and learning that can impede the development of expertise and skill and can lead to cognitive difficulty and error on the part of novices or journeymen, but also on the part of practitioners who are already considered to be expert.

This research program involves the creation of methods for eliciting, preserving, and disseminating the wisdom of experts, for the benefit of society. The knowledge of the experts also will underlie new technologies to assist domain experts at their jobs, technologies that are truly "Human-Centered."