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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