The Dynamics of Cognitive Frames: How Emergency Call Takers Handle a Continuous Stream of Inquiries.

This study delves into the uncharted territory of collective cognitive frame dynamics during the crisis, specifically examining the response of the call takers in an emergency call center to abrupt traffic control changes. This study addresses two critical gaps in the literature of sensemaking theory: first, the lack of comparative analysis of cognitive frames at the collective level, and second, the insufficient exploration of how discursive and material practices influence collective sensemaking. It recognizes cognitive diversity (differences in perspectives, knowledge, and experience among members) and cognitive complexity (the number of concepts in cognitive frames and their interrelations) as pivotal dimensions for examining the dynamics of cognitive frames in a collective setting. Specifically, our research focuses on capturing how the collective discourses and material practices of emergency call takers impact the evolution of cognitive frames in these two dimensions, providing a comprehensive understanding of cognitive frame dynamics in response to crisis situations. Using data from 74 audio interactions and 3,119 call logs, supplemented by participatory observation of the whole process, this study employs a rigorous, multi-phased methodological design integrating computational linguistics and qualitative analysis. this study applied dependency syntactic analysis to extract verb-object structures from call taker discourses, providing a basis for identifying coping strategies and generalizing cognitive frames. Besides, material practices, examined through policing logs, employ the Word2Vec model and cosine similarity metrics, offering a novel perspective on cognitive frame evolution in high-stress environments. Key findings include the paradoxical role of sensegiving ambiguity, which, contrary to being detrimental, fosters group cognitive adaptability and diverse coping strategies. The study also reveals the integral role of both formal and informal leadership in shaping and stabilizing collective cognitive frames. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of material practices, like policing logs, in developing coherent cognitive frames across the organization. These insights contribute substantially to the understanding of collective sensemaking in crisis situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]