The Three Things in Life? · June 6, 2012 . An expert is a man who has made all of the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field. Neils Bohr --experts not ‘special’

The Three Things in Life?

Expertise in Geography

What Is It?

Roger M. Downs

June 6, 2012

An expert is a man

who has made all of

the mistakes, which

can be made, in a very

narrow field. Neils Bohr

--experts not ‘special’ people

The Nature of Expertise

--experts not ‘special’ people

--lengthy experience: deliberate practice

The Nature of Expertise

--experts not ‘special’ people

--lengthy experience: deliberate practice

--naïve-expert continuum

The Nature of Expertise

--experts not ‘special’ people

--lengthy experience: deliberate practice

--naïve-expert continuum

--knowledge differs in breadth & depth:

underlying patterns & principles

The Nature of Expertise

--experts not ‘special’ people

--lengthy experience: deliberate practice

--naïve-expert continuum

--knowledge differs in breadth & depth:

underlying patterns & principles

--problem solving strategies differ in

speed, flexibility, & accuracy

The Nature of Expertise

--experts not ‘special’ people

--lengthy experience: deliberate practice

--naïve-expert continuum

--knowledge differs in breadth & depth:

underlying patterns & principles

--problem solving strategies differ in

speed, flexibility, & accuracy

--domain specific

The Nature of Expertise

William Bunge

Theoretical Geography (1962)

Antecedents in

Cognitive Science

1.F. C. Bartlett: memory & problem

solving

F. C. Bartlett’s Sectional Maps (1932)

You set out from the point marked S and

your aim is to get to a spot somewhere to

the N.W. Choose which road to start on,

and when you have got as far as you can

on this plan you will be given another

sectional map, and so on until you get to

the final map on which the place you

want to reach will be marked O. At any

stage you can, if you wish, go back to the

starting point or to some position short

of the starting-point.

Antecedents in

Cognitive Science

1.F. C. Bartlett: memory & problem

solving

2.Alan Lesgold: expertise & medical

imaging

Alan Lesgold

Antecedents in

Cognitive Science

1.F. C. Bartlett: memory & problem

solving

2.Alan Lesgold: expertise & medical

imaging

3.Alan Newell: problem solving

(Tower of Hanoi problem)

Alan Newell & the

Tower of Hanoi Problem

Antecedents in

Geography

1.Armin Lobeck: what maps don’t

tell us

Antecedents in

Geography

1.Armin Lobeck: what maps don’t

tell us

2.Walter Christaller: how I

discovered central place theory

Antecedents in

Geography

1.Armin Lobeck: what maps don’t

tell us

2.Walter Christaller: how I

discovered central place theory

3.Brian Harley: the silences of maps

Jeremy Anderson

Railway

Line

Road

Road

--if unique & therefore not repeated,

then road continues in straight line

Kink in the Road

--if unique & therefore not repeated,

then road continues in straight line

--if recurring & therefore repeated

property of space, then road will not

continue in straight line

Kink in the Road

River

tt

t

Bunge’s Actual and Predicted Map

Villages

Villages

Town

Types of Inferences &

Levels of Expertise

1. rail line: relatively simple

1

Types of Inferences &

Levels of Expertise

1. rail line: relatively simple

2. kink in road: more challenging because of multiple possibilities

2

2

2

Types of Inferences &

Levels of Expertise

1. rail line: relatively simple

2. kink in road: more challenging because of multiple possibilities

3. stream system: stream order & topography; knowledge of theory of fluvial processes

3

Types of Inferences &

Levels of Expertise

1. rail line: relatively simple

2. kink in road: more challenging because multiple possibilities

3.stream system: stream order & topography; knowledge of theory of fluvial processes

4. villages: lattices; knowledge of central place theory

4

--Decompose into functional elements

Geographic Completion Strategies

--Decompose into functional elements

--Look for patterns in elements

Geographic Completion Strategies

--Decompose into functional elements

--Look for patterns in elements

--Look for exceptions & deviations

Geographic Completion Strategies

--Decompose into functional elements

--Look for patterns in elements

--Look for exceptions & deviations

--Extrapolate & interpolate pattern

elements

Geographic Completion Strategies

--Decompose into functional elements

--Look for patterns in elements

--Look for exceptions & deviations

--Extrapolate & interpolate pattern

elements

--Look for connections among patterns

Geographic Completion Strategies

--Decompose into functional elements

--Look for patterns in elements

--Look for exceptions & deviations

--Extrapolate & interpolate pattern

elements

--Look for connections among patterns

--Modify patterns: expectations, what

makes sense, aesthetics

Geographic Completion Strategies

Because of its unique properties—

particularly its rating scale and method

of recording games—chess offers

cognitive psychologists an ideal task

environment in which to study skilled

performance. It has been called a

Drosophila, or fruit fly, for cognitive

psychology…

Neil Charness 1991

Geodrosophila

--ecologically valid: rich, challenging,

interesting

Characteristics of Tasks

--ecologically valid: rich, challenging,

interesting

--meaningful to & accessible by

people with varying levels of

expertise

Characteristics of Tasks

--ecologically valid: rich, challenging,

interesting

--meaningful to & accessible by

people with varying levels of

expertise

--amenable to use of thinking aloud

protocols

Characteristics of Tasks

--cartography: identifying types of

map projections

Candidates for Tasks

--cartography: identifying types of

map projections

--physical & human geography:

reading landscapes

Candidates for Tasks

--cartography: identifying types of

map projections

--physical & human geography:

reading landscapes

--geomorphology: linking maps &

cross sections

Candidates for Tasks

--cartography: identifying types of

map projections

--physical & human geography:

reading landscapes

--geomorphology: linking maps &

cross sections

-- GIS: “Where is Waldo?”

Candidates for Tasks

The Bottom Line

In order to understand the

nature, development , & fostering

of geographic expertise, we need

a set of geographic Drosophila.

Expertise as the

Missing Piece

An expert is someone

who knows some of

the worst mistakes

that can be made in

his subject and who

manages to avoid

them. Werner Heisenberg