The Role of Expertise Research and Human Factors in Capturing, Explaining, and Producing Superior Performance

Abstract

Objectives-The goal of this article is to identify some of the major trends and findings in expertise research and their connections to human factors.Background-Progress in the study of superior human performance has come from improved methods of measuring expertise and the development of better tools for revealing the mechanisms that support expert performance, such as protocol analysis and eye tracking.

Expertise, credibility of system forecasts and integration methods in judgmental demand forecasting

“…The definitions found in the literature usually refer to at least three components of expertise: first, a field of specialized knowledge in which expertise is observable (domain knowledge); second, an outstanding expert's performance in this field; and third, the consistency (i.e., time-lasting and reproducibility) of such a performance. The measurement of expertise usually involves comparisons (novice vs. expert), peer recognition or objective measures of efficiency, and effectiveness in domain knowledge (Charness & Tuffiash, 2008;Germain & Tejeda, 2012). In expert elicitation, a priori selection (based on publication record, group membership or résumé), co-nomination and peer suggestions are frequent (Butler, Thomas, & Pintar, 2015;EPA, 2011;Meyer & Booker, 2001;Nedeva, Georghiou, Loveridge, & Cameron, 1996), because it is quite difficult to develop tailored tests of knowledge domain effectiveness.…”

Towards Technology-Supported Surgical Training

“…Acquiring expertise in medicine has been one specific interest area of expertise research. Researchers are hoping to be able, through expert performance investigations, to demonstrate the possibilities to develop skill-sensitive education for bringing novices to high levels of performance efficiently through facilitating skill acquisition (Charness & Tuffiash 2008). …”

“…Nevertheless, it is known that expert performance is heavily dependent on domain-specific knowledge rather than advantages of general abilities that enable experts to anticipate upcoming actions superiorly (Charness & Tuffiash 2008). The domain-specific knowledge in medicine can be broadly divided into biomedical knowledge, which forms the basic theory of medicine, and practical knowledge about treatments and the way they should be done (Van De Wiel, Boshuizen & Schmidt 2000).…”

“…In medical diagnostics, for example, the factors leading to variation in performance appear to be multiple, and therefore the general problem-solving principles do not seem to fit in medical diagnostics, since the success in one problem is not simply predicting the success in another problem (Norman et al 2006). However, expertise in medicine demands high problem-solving and reasoning abilities that enable one to identify essential elements underlying cases (Charness & Tuffiash 2008), a kind of pattern recognition.…”

“…Therefore, laparoscopic skills learning and training manners seem to need special attention. Trere are researchers who have recently suggested, the human factor research for inventing solutions for enhancing patient safety in this particular area of surgery (Charness & Tuffiash 2008;Gawron et al 2006;O'Connor et al 2010).…”