Naturalistic Observation

 

Naturalistic observations are just observing an individual in the actual setting of that job/ interested behavior. So, as the name implies, the behaviors being observed are in theory happening in their natural setting. This differs from an experimental setting where a recreation of the job could be observed in a laboratory.

 

Since, the job in the experimental setting is not happening in the actual environment it takes place, the behaviors in the individuals conducting the job may be different.  DeJoode et al. (2003) provides an example of how this works for airport command communications. Here, the researchers used written notes, video recording, and still photos to conduct their observations.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Dahlbäck, N., Jönsson, A., & Ahrenberg, L. (1993). Wizard of Oz studies — why and how. Knowledge-Based Systems, 6(4), 258–266.

​

Dejoode, J. A., Cooke, N. J., & Shope, S. M. (2003). Naturalistic Observation of Airport Incident Command. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 47(3), 663–667.