Citation

Stevens J. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 1993; 7(3): 205-217.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/acp.2350070305

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A two-phase observational study was done on skilled waitresses as they served lunch orders in a Manhattan restaurant. Three months of participant observation provided a job description which characterized the skilled use of memory by waitresses. A second set of observations tracked the handling of orders for five confederate customers, and looked at ways in which waitresses had to reorganize information in order to do their job quickly and accurately. The date revealed that waitresses sort-order information into different organizational configurations to match locations in the restaurant, and that they adaptively utilized these configurations in the flow of their activity.

Language: en