UNIVERSITY of SAN CARLOS TECHNOLOGICAL CENTERNasipit, Talamban, 6000 Cebu City, Philippines

Final Term PaperApplications of Cognitive Psychology in Expert Performance

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Submitted By: Chua, Felixter Leone SeeO, Wesley Clarence Sy Ong, Arthur Louie Yu Pacio, Lance BrandonVasnani, Neelesh Naresh BSIE 3rd year students

Submitted to: Mr. Alaine Liggayu IE 325 MW 11:00am 12:30pm Instructor Department of Industrial Engineering

Submitted On:March 27, 2015TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction1-2

II. Applied Theories and Principles2-8

III. Methodologies and Procedures8-12

IV. Popular Examples12-14

V. Conclusion14-15

VI. References15

I. Introduction

Experts all around the world are changing society and improving it in every way possible. Systems, programs, functions, workspaces and etc are evolving because of the influence of experts. These experts are responsible for the advancement of our lifestyles. Each year technology and science improve simply because there are experts out there who have done work and due to their performance, are able to breakthrough new discoveries. Experts and their performances have limitations and it is these limitations that keep the world organized and secure. A good example would be that an expert should best stick to one field of expertise. This is because it is focus that brings out the most potential benefit on the specific field. Famous experts such as Bruce Lee, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan all have one thing in common: They were able to improve and change the game of their specific fields because they were all driven, passionate and focused. Influences are given by performances. The better the expert performs, the bigger the influence done on the specific field of play.

Experts serve as great influences and should not be taken for granted. Their success has paved the way to new insights on how to deal with things. No one starts out an expert. They are called experts because they have found breakthroughs and have mastered a specific set of skills. Innovations and success cannot be achieved by people who do not learn or excel in his/her certain field. It is important for us to learn from the performances of these experts and follow their footsteps. Metaphorically, experts have already dug out the tunnel --- they have already done the hard and challenging part and our only job is to cross it; our job is to learn from the ideals and visions created by the experts.

The unique thing about being an expert is that you have to keep a standard of performance if you want to continue being branded as an expert. Determination drives experts to further accomplishments. This expert performance is something that has become a need if this world has to continue to innovate. The world would not be as productive and progressive as it is today without these expert individuals. That is why in the study of human factors, there is a prevailing need to acquire these skills to match the performance of these experts. Throughout this paper, it will be discussed how cognitive psychology can be applied to acquire the skills needed for expert performance; various theories and procedures will be explicated to supplement this.

II. Applied Theories and Principles

The Merriam-Webster definition of an expert is having, involving, or displaying skill or knowledge in a particular field gained from experience or training. It can also be defined as having comprehensive and authoritative knowledge. Expertise is when one shows special skill in certain subjects gained through professional training (Ericsson, 2000). Now an expert may not necessarily be all about the profession. Many people say experts were born expert like Mozart who was a musical genius from even his early ages (Elson II, 2003).

Robert Glaser (Michelene T.H. Chi, Robert Glaser, Marshall J. Farr, 2014) says that the studies on expertise began in the late 1960s when artificial intelligence (AI) was being made. Many inferences were made when Greenblatt made a chess program that would make every best plausible move when up against an opponent (Greenblatt, Eastlake & Crocker, 1967). The program could make this best move through extensive searches while many other psychologists found that more experienced chess players need not search as hard due to the fact that those players could identify patterns and moves in mere seconds (deGroot,1966).

The Nature of expert performance is divided into seven (Michelene T.H. Chi, Robert Glaser, Marshall J. Farr, 2014). They excel in their own domains; it is very hard for an expert in one field to shift their skills to another field. Take the chess players stated above, the likelihood of an expert chess player being able to quickly become and expert fictional book author is very slim because those are two very separate fields. Experts also perceive meaningful patterns in their domain. For example, an Industrial engineer has had much experience when it comes to scheduling the production process. That engineering can easily tell how to organize the production schedule as the orders come in because theyve seen it before. This ties in to the next point; experts are fast. That same engineer could quickly fix any problems that come in the way with little error. Chase (1983) conducted a study with cab drivers, and they could recognize the shortest route to their destination after taking traffic to considerations. Experts also have better memory when it comes to their fields. They show superior short-term memory not because they exceed the human limit, but because everything is so automatic with them that their brains dont use up as much, allowing for greater storage. Experts see and understand problems in their domain deeper. Take the engineer from before, if a problem would rise up, lets say a rush demand for a certain product. The engineer would be able to see how that order will affect the remaining resources, and they would begin thinking of ways to deal with the new problem. This is also the sixth point; experts take more time to understand the nature of the problem. Experts being able to solve problems faster was stated above, but this point is that experts will understand the nature of these problems, as opposed to novices that would immediately use equations and algorithms. Lastly, experts self-monitor. Experts will often recheck what theyve done (Simon and Simon, 1978). They want to be as accurate as possible to uphold the standards at which they are called experts.

There are many things that constitute an expert and his/her performance. Christopher D. Wickens, Justin G. Hollands, Raja Parasuraman, Simon Banbury (2012) states that expertise is strongly linked to cognitive psychology. The researchers used Engineering Psychology and human Performance (4th edition) by Christopher D. Wickens, Justin G. Hollands, Raja Parasuraman, Simon Banbury as the guide in making this study.Expertise is, almost by definition, inexorably linked to both memory and learning.(Christopher D. Wickens, Justin G. Hollands, Raja Parasuraman, Simon Banbury, 2012, pg.208) Experts learn learn and remember things in their domain that provide advantages when it comes to performance. (Cellier, Eyrolle, Marin, 1997) noted that the expert performance is: obtained through training and practice in a domain/field, gives a significant performance advantage, and involves specialized and specific knowledge. While defining an expert is easy, determining experts are much more complex. Experts may not always be more reliable than the less experienced (Ericsson and Ward, 2007). They based it on processes that are intrinsic, which means that those are areas that define the domain of expertise. Intrinsic tasks are vital in the domain like how industrial engineers need to be good managers. Contrived tasks are areas that are not central to the domain, but are still useful in the overall performance. Cognitive Psychology is a contrived task in IE though it may not be at the core of IE, it still provides an advantage as the engineers will be able to better understand the human mind.

To further relate memory and expertise, Wickens et al. noted that chunking, which is a method of encoding memory, is one of the things that constitute an expert. The template theory was proposed by Gobet and Clarkson (2004) and it says that continuous use of similar chunks help the brain form a template of those chunks that allow easy retrieval. This means that the brain can use it capacity for other things. Chase and Ericsson (1981) later studied that expertise can lead to certain chunking patterns. These patterns allow for easier recall and a better understanding of the chunks. This also goes with Ericsson and Kintschs (1995) Long-term Working Memory concept which states that skilled use of stored memories develop them into the long-term memory. This helps the expert in storing the vast information and data that their domain holds. The template theory stores the frequently-used chunks and the Long-Term memory allows the expert to easily retrieve the data. It adds another advantage that increases performance.

Being an expert is all about learning whats in the domain. Its the familiarizing oneself to the elements of that field. Training and learning is the key to becoming an expert. There is a cognitive load theory that was first coined by Kalyuga, Chandler & Sweller (1998) known as the expertise effect. The expertise effect helps reduce the overall cognitive load for learners with greater experience. This frees the brain for more advantageous processes like error prevention and understanding the problem. When used for actual experts, one can see how automatic intrinsic tasks become for experts as they have much greater capacity due to the fact that their brains make their action almost involuntary. To put it simply, the expert effect can be seen in training learners. This helps their overall performance as it reduces the capacity required to do the task at hand.

Wickens et al. says that knowledge is not stored as random strips of data, but it is stored in an organized manner in the long-term memory. Collins & Quillan (1969) even went on and said that we store broader information apart from narrower ones. When one becomes an expert, the structure of ones long-term memory changes. It becomes easier to recall the information regarding that domain. The retrieval is more fluid-like and this helps improve performance. A mental model reflects ones understanding of a system (Caroll & Olson, 1987). Mental models can be incorrect and incomplete based on the individuals own perception. These can be changed over time, but that often takes a while and needs a greater amount of energy than structuring the model itself. Experts show incredible flexibility when it comes to the mental models of their domain. They can also adjust their solutions to a problem even under stress better than a novice.

In terms of attention, experts are better at handling multitasking situations (Bahrick & Shelley, 1958). Experts can scan their multitasking environment better than novices (Fisher & Pollatsek, 2007, Shinar, 2008, Kramer & Wickens, 1997). They can pick up the necessary information better than others because of their mental models. Wickens et al. states that experts are more resistant to interruption. They have devised interruption management strategies to help deal with any obstacles along the way. Their attention is more flexible than a novice. They can allocate cognitive resources to more important task due to their familiarity and understanding of their domain. Expectancy allows an individual to focus on areas where action is more likely to happen. Experts can anticipate the areas where problems or complications can occur due to their mental models. They are able to assign values to each area. These values aid with expectancy. The areas with higher expectancy are more likely to capture ones attention. Because of the very detailed mental models experts have, they can see which areas need the most attention (Wickens et al, 2012).

When it comes to visual perception, an individual has to get a good grasp of their field of view before they can act. Searching is the process of looking for certain details in an environment. There is a trade-off between speed and accuracy of a search (Drury, 1996). Experts are less likely to make errors in their search due to their long-term memory of the domain (Wickens et al, 2012). They can clearly see whats wrong. A second search is often done in order to recheck areas of uncertainty and scan for any missed irregularities.

Decision Making is vital for a human being. We make decisions every day, but some decisions are harder to make than others. Uncertainty and rick, Time and Time pressure and familiarity and expertise are key features in decision making (Wickens et al, 2012). Focusing on Familiarity and Expertise, experts can quickly pick the correct option when provided with a decision making problem (Lipshitz & Cohen, 2005). There are two ways an expert can make decisions. The first way is automatic and effortless while the other way requires more analyses and deliberations. The more effortless decision making was coined by Hammod (1987) as Holistic Decision Making. Zambok & Klein (1997) found that experts can tell domain-related differences and choose the right solution after taking that into account. Being exposed to correlated decision over and over again makes the expert more familiar with the problems. This allows the expert to choose accordingly. The retrieval time for the experts long-term memory is quite short (Shriver, 2009). The philosophy here is, It worked once. Itll work again. This familiarity has proven to be a hindrance in certain cases. The nature of the problems may be similar, but certain core elements may be different. III. Methodologies and Principles

We often attribute expert performance or expertise to special talents as this superior performance usually looks so natural and effortless. There is however a certain amount of knowledge and training required to reach the highest levels of achievements, and the traditional way of looking at born-talent as everything is slowly being minimized, and thats a very good thing. In recent studies, scientists tried to measure the experts supposedly superior powers in aspects like speed, memory, and intelligence with psychological tests, and no general superiority was found. They found out that this superiority was domain specific, for example, the expertise of chess experts was limited to chess positions and did not excel in other types of memory challenges. Moreover, although a factor, not even IQ could distinguish the best among chess players, artists, and even scientists. This allows for deliberate practice and training that can be acquired to attain expert performance in desired fields. Consequently, there are many procedures studied and highlighted by the practitioners in this field that can be used in acquiring expertise.

One area where cognitive superiority benefits professionals a lot is decision making. Decision making is important in our daily lives as much as it is in the corporate setting. Thus expertise in decision making is valued a lot. Experts generally look at the decision and intuitively pick the correct choice, while novices may ponder for some time and make a poor choice. The best way to become better at this is experience. Exposure to the same set of correlated cues leads to same assessment, and improves it overtime. This is often achieved with decision making systems that offer dummy situations. As mentioned, expertise does not come guaranteed with practice, and so the extent to which expertise can be acquired in decision making is limited, in fact the most limited compared to other areas. The reason to this being the unpredictability factor of life, wherein even delays in decision making can cause new factors to arise, reducing the margin for error.

Attention is another area where expertise is desired in the industry. This involves paying attention to complex tasks and minimizing the time involved. There is method called fractionation task training wherein training of tasks is done in an isolated manner. Since experts in attention cite automation as a key, training in parts can make your attention focus more on a singular task, which makes you do better in multitask situations like driving or flying. However, many doctors in the field think it is better to train the whole task, rather than its singular ones. A procedure called visual scanning is usually done where the environment is analyzed to prepare the attention required and at the same time, interruptions are tackled. This training method makes novices achieve close to expert performance.

Expertise in avoiding human error is another commonly talked about topic in expert performance. With our world so focused on quality and perfection, it is important to learn how to match experts in increasing our reliability how often we fail. The most common way of training to avoid human error is repetitive practice, with the use of monitoring tools like event or fault trees. These event trees monitor errors committed in tasks, and make it possible to see where youre making the error. Aside from practice, other factors like stress, interruptions, and low confidence must be eliminated to achieve expert performance in this area.

Our world lives because of the acquisition of knowledge and its learning. Experts that can organize this knowledge and learn it efficiently and deeply are commended. Many novices train hardly to match these experts when it comes to learning. One of the most common ways to learning better is still the traditional repetition technique. The more you do something, the more you learn new things about it and youre learning on that subject is strengthened. Another factor that you have to look into is the distribution of practice. It is better to practice multiple times with reasonable amounts of time intervals, rather than mass practice all at once. There also many other factors to consider when trying to improve learning, and it is one area that requires immense focus and determination to master. A related factor that also contributes to learning is memory, which is discussed next.

Memory is another factor where everyone tries to perform remarkably well due to its advantages in tackling either education or employment and even in daily activities. Novices take a considerable amount of time in order for them to memorize words, sentences and procedures but experts somehow perform memorization in a shorter period of time. Most experts perform well due to some methods like chunking in order for them to retain information much quicker and encoding these information in the long term memory well. It would require great procedural skills which would provide experts a measurable performance advantage in the methods they specialize. One example is in circumstances which requires vigilance and situational awareness. Most experts acquire the advantage in conditions which require these attributes due to the fact that they are able to easily encode vital information required in every situation. By being easily able to encode, they would have an ample more time for analysis and decision making right for the situation.Another controversial attribute is multitasking. Most people believe that they are able to multitask fairly well. However, most people find themselves unable to focus on an activity when they get into multitasking. Experts, though, could perform multitasking quite well. This is because they are able to practice their specific tasks until it becomes an automatic process wherein it only takes lesser amount of focus to do well in every activity involved.

Visual search is another trait which provides advantage in certain situation especially when it comes to information gathering. Experts use certain techniques like keywords to spot the desired word or finding particular shapes which aid in finding the total figure. Another factor which helps experts perform visual search quite well is due to the frequency of use wherein a student who uses a particular book frequently is able to find the lessons faster compared to students who are new to the book.

IV. Popular Examples

Henry Ford (1863 1947)Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.As a child, ford loved to assemble and disassemble watches and became a watch repairman. When his mother passed away, Ford left the family farm and began to work as a machinist and later serviced steam engines. Ford became an engineer and made his first vehicle called the Ford quadricycle which was similar to a car. After many successful attempts in making vehicles, he then partnered with people to create the Ford Motor Company where the assembly line technique was implemented. Using his expertise and training in creating machines and trying to make production more efficient, his cars turned out to be cheaper to make and cost saving. He was also able to increase daily salaries to the workers. Ford then carried his experience in the car industry and manufacturing processes to make airplanes during the First World War

Peugeot CompanyThe Peugeot family of Valentigney, Montbliard, Franche-Comt, France, began in the manufacturing business in the 18th century. In 1842, they added production of coffee, pepper, and salt grinders.[15] The company's entry into the vehicle market was by means of crinoline dresses, which used steel rods, leading to umbrella frames, saw blades, wire wheels, and ultimately bicycles.[16] Armand Peugeot introduced his "Le Grand Bi" penny-farthing in 1882, along with a range of other bicycles. Peugeot then ventured into automobiles and won many rally competitions. Peugeot added motorcycles to its range in 1903, and they have been built under the Peugeot name ever since. Peugeot now is the leading French Car brand worldwideThe companys experience in the manufacturing industry, supply and exposure to different kinds of metals and levers made the transition to automobiles very easy. Peugeot knew the domain and the elements of the automobile industry so establishing the processes were much easier because of the expertise shown in the field of automobiles and manufacturing.

V. Conclusion

As experts continue to influence and inspire individuals through their incredible performances, there would be people who continue to study on how they are able to attain their special skills and talents.

It is usually shown that there is a need for great passion, motivation and hard work in order to attain the performance considered as an expert. Most experts, with their drive of passion, are motivated to continue, practice and experience specific areas and through this, they get a chance to discover new ideas while performing well in the areas they have been focusing.

It doesnt mean that being an expert requires doing what is expected of you but being an expert requires continuous motivation and hard work in order to acquire new knowledge and understanding because before you can learn further ideas, you have to go through and master existing ones. By mastering these existing ideas and formulating knew ones continuously is when you get to be called an expert. Everyone can be an expert. By knowing your passion and perusing it, you can practice these areas and effortlessly learn new concepts relating to these areas. Because as Einstein quotes: Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. So all you need is to find your strength and improve this in order to soon become an expert.

VI. References Christopher D Wickens, Justin G Hollands, Raja Parasuraman, Simon Banbury (2012). Engineering Psychology & Human Performance (4th Edition).

Ericsson (2000). Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice. Michelene T.H. Chi, Robert Glaser, Marshall J. Farr (2014). The Nature of Expertise. John L. Elson II (2003). Expert and Novice Performance in an Industrial Engineering Virtual World Simulation.

K. Anders Ericsson, Jacqui Smith (1991) Toward a General Theory of Expertise. https://psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford http://www.peugeot.com/en/brand http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/101458-everybody-is-a-genius-but-if-you-judge-a-fish