Perception "noise" in the Cognition of Visualised Construction Process Concepts

Within the context of a scoping study the paper examines factors having a possible effect on the nature of cognition achieved with regard to specific construction industry production process concepts. These factors are considered with regard to the level of cognition, as a follow-on from the act of visual perception, that may be achieved by individuals with regard to production process concepts. The key production concepts considered are those of the extent of continuous specific interdependency (CSI) and discontinuous specific interdependency (DSI), as determined through assessing type and extent of discontinuities between construction activities linked by the process logic to form process chains. Existing means of visualising dependencies within and between projects are argued to be deficient with regard to their ability to communicate relationships such as discontinuous specific interdependency. Existing HCIs, for example, are suggested as simply seeking to replicate means of visualisation that are historically established, such as the bar chart, CPN, PERT, etc. This approach is considered within the paper from the perspective of the suggested differing abilities of experts and novices to “fill-in” the gaps presented in the context of communicating relationships such as DSI. The use of a structured entity approach to enhance the communication of concepts such as interdependency through the visualisation of relevant characteristics of individual activities is proposed. This entity is developed from work carried out in areas of research such as thinking with diagrams (TWD), knowledge maps, and the theories of perception with regard to pattern recognition. The suggested entity also seeks to maximise the value of current HCIs rather than imposing a radically new means of visualisation on project planning software.