The Three Worlds of Task Complexity
To provide a systematic approach to defining task complexity using a three worlds model previously introduced in informing science research.
The task complexity construct presents researchers with a quandary. While it appears useful on the surface, repeated attempts to define it rigorously have failed to gain traction in the broader research community. The level of inconsistency between definitions is shown to have changed little in the past 20 years.
Using a common framework that treats task complexity as a latent construct residing between sources and outcomes, moderated by both task familiarity and task discretion, separate models for each of the three worlds are developed.
Our paper proposes a potential path forward by showing how many issues in past task complexity research can be reconciled by framing the construct according to the three worlds model: the world we experience, the world of human artifacts, and the “real world.”
The framework defines experienced complexity as occurring in the mind of the task performer while performing a single task instance, intrinsic complexity as a function of the internal characteristics of the problem space used to perform a bounded set of task instances, and extrinsic complexity as the ruggedness of the fitness landscape in which the task is performed.
It offers a path to convergence for definitions of task complexity.
The three worlds of task complexity can potentially be applied to many practical problems.
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