Psychology-Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic Observation

Primary Reference Source

Loucopoulos P and V Karakostas (1995) System Requirements Engineering. McGraw Hill International.

Summary description

Observational methods involve an investigator viewing users as they work and taking notes on the activity which takes place. Observation may be either direct, where the investigator is actually present during the task, or indirect, where the task is viewed by some other means such as through use of a video camera.

Typical Application Areas

Useful early in specification for obtaining qualitative data. This method is an alternative (non-involving) version of Contextual Inquiry. It is useful for studying currently executed tasks and processes. It has been extensively advocated in the past.

Benefits

Allows the observer to view what users actually do in context. Direct observation allows the investigator to focus attention on specific areas of interest. Indirect observation captures activity that would otherwise have gone unrecorded or unnoticed.

Limitations

Observing can be obtrusive and subjects may alter their behaviour due to the presence of an observer. Co operation of users is vital and so the interpersonal skills of the observer are important. Notes and video tape need to be analyzed by the note-taker which can be time consuming and prevents the task being split up for analysis by a number of people. If events or behaviours which occur at unpredictable intervals are of interest, this kind of observation can become extremely time-consuming.

Cost of use

Analysis usually takes 5 to 7 times the amount of time spent recording events unless a substantial amount of analysis is done in real-time, during off-peak moments. Indirect observation requires access to audio visual recording and playback equipment.

Costs of Acquisition

Observers require training and practice in order to take accurate and complete notes. Suitability for requirements engineering in Telematics:

Some partner experience (SINTEF, NPL, HFRG, NOMOS). Technique widely used in industry by HCI consultants, and portable video kits are popular.

How to get it - Widely documented in the literature.

Detailed description of method

Naturalistic Observation as a field method involves the following steps:

1.Establish objectives and information requirements. Should the coverage be in breadth or in depth? It is extremely imp...

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...is the issue of bias. Researchers are always going to bring preconceived ideas to a naturalistic-observation episode. Then, unwittingly, those preconceptions will shape the observations themselves. For example, you may think that second-grade boys are more vocal than girls, so you may pay more attention when you hear boys talking and shouting, but less when you hear girls doing the same. How can you deal with this problem?

One way to deal with the problem of bias is to have multiple observers. If you are the only one consistently to observe some behavior, then, maybe you are adding it to the situation, or, maybe the others just cannot see it. However, now you and the other observers could look for it more closely. Another way to deal with bias is to record the situation on film or videotape. Then, it can be analyzed repeatedly. Still another way is to have naive observers. You train observers, but you do not tell them why they are observing. Then, those observers will be less likely to see the situation in the light of the hypothesis.

So, naturalistic observation is a good first step in research; it is good for formulating hypotheses, but care needs to be used to control for bias.