The Three Things in Life? Expertise in Geography What Is It? Roger M. Downs June 6, 2012.
-
Upload
isabella-elliott -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
2
Transcript of The Three Things in Life? Expertise in Geography What Is It? Roger M. Downs June 6, 2012.
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