expertise

Question 1

effect of experience on cognitive ability

Answer 1

• Experience influences cognitive abilities

- Experience in different areas influences the way that people perceive, attend, remember and learn information

Question 2

Visual search

Answer 2

Visual search is more efficient for objects within the area of expertise

Hershler and Hochstein (2009): Car and bird experts were quicker to find objects from their own area of
expertise (also Golan et al., 2014)

Question 3

Response inhibition

Answer 3

Understanding speech in noise

Think about other possibilities

Question 4

proposing explanations for your results

Answer 4

• What does theory predict we will find?
• How do our results relate to our hypotheses, and those theories?
• Think carefully about WHY you found your results when writing your Discussion (focus on this instead of critiquing methods)
• And this is regardless of whether our initial hypotheses were supported or not
  Often, we have already explored relevant psychological theory in our Introduction

Question 5

Using theory to explain results

Answer 5

• Our explanations do not need to be ‘absolutely correct’ (there is no such thing anyway!), they just need to be plausible and follow evidence
• Remember, we can never ‘prove’ something in psychology (or any science), and we can never say that a hypothesis is ‘correct’ (only that it was supported/not supported by evidence)
• When you read research, make sure you spend time on the Discussion to understand the psychological explanations for the results

Question 6

Born or made?

Answer 6

Why might an expert in a specific area might exhibit superior cognitive function?
The “deliberate practice” hypothesis (e.g. Keith & Ericsson, 2007)
Performance is the results of effortful and purposeful practice in specific cognitive domains
Results after several years of practice
But what about the other way around?
Beyond born vs. made: A new look at expertise: Hambrick, Macnamara, and Campitelli (2016)