The Three Things in Life?

Expertise in Geography What Is It?

Roger M. DownsJune 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 BungeTheoretical 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

RailwayLine

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 &Types of Inferences &Levels of ExpertiseLevels of Expertise

1. rail line1. rail line: relatively simple: relatively simple

1

Types of Inferences &Types of Inferences &Levels of ExpertiseLevels of Expertise

1. rail line1. rail line: relatively simple: relatively simple2. kink in road2. kink in road: more challenging : more challenging because of multiple possibilitiesbecause of multiple possibilities

2

2

2

Types of Inferences &Types of Inferences &Levels of ExpertiseLevels of Expertise

1. rail line1. rail line: relatively simple: relatively simple2. kink in road2. kink in road: more challenging : more challenging because of multiple possibilitiesbecause of multiple possibilities3. stream system3. stream system: stream order & : stream order & topography; knowledge of theory of topography; knowledge of theory of fluvial processesfluvial processes

3

Types of Inferences &Types of Inferences &Levels of ExpertiseLevels of Expertise

1. rail line1. rail line: relatively simple: relatively simple2. kink in road2. kink in road: more challenging : more challenging because multiple possibilitiesbecause multiple possibilities3.stream system3.stream system: stream order & : stream order & topography; knowledge of theory of topography; knowledge of theory of fluvial processesfluvial processes4. villages4. villages:: lattices; knowledge of lattices; knowledge of central place theorycentral 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