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The development of expertise: animal models?
1Department of Psychology, Wilmington College, OH 45177, USA. Deak_helton@yahoo.com
The Journal of General Psychology
|February 24, 2004
Summary
Researchers can study expertise development by experimenting with nonhuman animals. This approach offers insights into learning and talent theories, overcoming limitations in human expertise research.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Ethology
- Animal Behavior
Background:
- Ongoing debate in psychology regarding learning versus talent theories of expertise.
- Human expertise development is difficult to study experimentally.
- Ethological research on animal behavior offers potential experimental models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the utility of nonhuman animal models for studying expertise development.
- To bridge the gap between theoretical debates on expertise and experimental methodologies.
Main Methods:
- Review of ethological studies on nonhuman animal expertise development.
- Analysis of two specific nonhuman animal examples of expertise.
Main Results:
- Nonhuman animal expertise development is amenable to direct experimentation.
- Ethological research provides valuable, albeit often unlabelled, data on expertise.
Conclusions:
- Nonhuman animals serve as a viable and valuable model for experimental research into expertise.
- Recommends incorporating nonhuman animal studies to advance understanding of expertise development.