Robert Hoffman

Senior Research Scientist

Robert R. Hoffman, Ph.D. is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award, and an Honorary Fellow of The British Library, Eccles Center for American Studies.

He received his B.A., M. A., and Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Cincinnati, where he receivedMcMicken Scholar, Psi Chi, and Delta Tau Kappa Honors. After a Postdoctoral Associateship at the Center for Research on Human Learning at the University of Minnesota, Hoffman joined the faculty of Adelphi University. There, he received awards for outstanding research and service, and also served as Chair of the Institutional Review board and the University Grants Officer. He joined the IHMC as a Research Associate in 1999.

Hoffman’s early research was in the area of psycholinguistics, where he helped pioneer the experimental study of the comprehension of figurative language (metaphor, proverbs). His first book, Cognition and Figurative Language, co-edited by his mentor Richard Honeck of the University of Cincinnati, is now regarded as a classic. Hoffman went on to help found the journal, Metaphor and Symbol, for which he remains Associate Editor.

Another focus of Hoffman’s early work, an interest that continues to this day, is the psychology and history of science. Hoffman has published analyses of the use of metaphor in science, the philosophy of contextualism, and reviews of the histories of task analysis, cognitive psychology, and applied psychology.

After his Postdoctoral Associateship, Hoffman’s research took an applied direction. Hoffman helped launch an Annual Conference on Applied Experimental Psychology–one of which was the Ebbinghaus Centennial Conference (Gorfein & Hoffman, 1987), and another of which was an initial meeting of what would become the International Society for Ecological Psychology.

Hoffman has been recognized internationally for his research on expertise, on the methodology of knowledge elicitation, and on human factors issues in the design of workstation systems and knowledge-based systems. He is Series Editor for the book Series, “Expertise: Research and Applications.”

To realize his goals for research in applied cognitive psychology, Hoffman received grants from the U.S. Army and U. S. Air Force to receive training in remote sensing, including aerial photo interpretation, terrain analysis, radar interpretation, and meteorological satellite image interpretation. Ultimately, Hoffman qualified to teach remote sensing in environmental science, as well as human factors psychology.

Current projects include an effort to define the methodologies for human-centered computing and cognitive technologies, an effort to forge a general theory of macrocognitive work systems and an effort to develop measures and metrics for evaluating cognitive work.

Hoffman is a member of Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the IEEE and the American Meteorological Society.

Hoffman has published widely, in journals including Human Factors, Memory & Cognition, Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, The Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, The Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Ecological Psychology, Applied Cognitive Psychology, Metaphor and Symbol, The AI Magazine, Weather and Forecasting, and The Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of the Board of Editors for the journals Human Factors andCognitive Engineering and Decision Making.

Also an award-winning teacher, Hoffman has offered courses in General Psychology, Experimental Psychology Laboratory, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Problem Solving, Psycho-linguistics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Psychology, History of Science, Human Factors, and Remote Sensing.

Hoffman has also worked as a Ranger/Naturalist in the Green Mountains of Vermont and is an accomplished blues drummer. In his spare time he likes to restore Art Deco period furniture.

Selected Publications

Recent Books

Hoffman, R. R. and Militello, L. G. (2008). Perspectives on Cognitive Task Analysis: Historical Origins and Modern Communities of Practice. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press/Taylor and Francis.

Crandall, B., Klein, G., and Hoffman R. R. (2006). Working Minds: A Practitioner’s Guide to Cognitive Task Analysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hoffman, R. R. (Ed.) (2007). Expertise out of context: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making. Boca Raton FL: Taylor and Francis.

Ericsson, K. A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P. J. and Hoffman, R. R., (Eds.) (2006). Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Recent Journal Articles

Hoffman, R. R., Marx, M., Amin, R., & McDermott, P. (2010). Measurement for evaluating the learnability and resilience of methods of cognitive work. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science, in press.

Hoffman, R. R., Lee, J. D., Woods, D. D., Shadbolt, N., Miller, J. & Bradshaw, J. M. (2009, November/December). The dynamics of trust in cyberdomains. IEEE Intelligent Systems, pp. 5-11.

Stappers, P. J. & Hoffman, R. R. (2009, September/October). Once more into the soup. IEEE Intelligent Systems, pp. 9-13.

Hoffman, R. R., & McNeese, M. (2009). A history for macrocognition. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 3, 97-110.

Hoffman, R. R., Eskridge, T. & Shelly, C. (2009). A naturalistic exploration of the forms and functions of analogical reasoning.Metaphor and Symbol, 24, 125-154.

Hoffman, R. R., Norman, D. O. & Vagners, J. (2009, May/June). Complex Sociotechnical Joint Cognitive Work Systems? IEEE: Intelligent Systems, pp. 82-89.

Hoffman, R. R., Fiore, S. M., Klein, G., Feltovich, P. & Ziebell, D. (2009, March/April). Accelerated learning (?). IEEE: Intelligent Systems, pp. 18-22.

Moon, B., Hoffman, R. & Ziebell, D. (2009, Jan/Feb). How did you do that? Utilities Develop Strategies for Preserving and Sharing Expertise. Electric Perspectives, 34, 20-29.

Hoffman, R. R. (2008, November/December). Influencing versus informing design, Part 2: Macrcognitive modeling. IEEE: Intelligent Systems, pp. 86-89.

Hoffman, R. R. & Deal, S. V. (2008, September/October). Influencing versus informing design, Part 1: A gap analysis. IEEE: Intelligent Systems, pp. 72-75.

Hoffman, R. R., Neville, K. N. & Fowlkes, J. (2009). Using cognitive task analysis to explore issues in the procurement of intelligent decision support systems. Cognition, Technology, and Work, 11, 57-70.

Hoffman, R. R. (2008). Human factors contributions to knowledge elicitation. Human Factors (50th Anniversary Special Issue), 50(3), 481-488.Update for Hoffman info at the web site