ABSTRACT Accelerating the cognitive expertise of engineering professionals is a critical challenge for many high reliability, international organizations. This paper reports a collaborative, longitudinal, academic practitioner project which aimed to elicit, document and accelerate the cognitive expertise of engineering professional working with the manufacture and management of petroleum additives. 25 engineering experts were trained by three academic psychologists to use applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA) interview techniques in order to document the cognition of their expert peers. Results had high face validity for practitioners who elicited hot/sensory based cognition, a number of perceptual skills and mental models, highlighting undocumented context specific expertise. We conclude from a peer review of findings combined with experienced CTA analysts that ACTA techniques can be advanced in context by the explicit recognition and development of socio-cognitive competence /insight
