Making Sense of Mastery: Toward a Behavioral Interpretation of Expert Performance – A Theoretical Analysis
Master thesis
Published version
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3133605Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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Sammendrag
Expert performance is a phenomenon that is receiving increasing attention in mainstream psychology. At the forefront of this research field is the view that deliberate practice – performing exercises as directed by a teacher – is the number one predictor for achieving expert behavior. Another view is that implicit learning leads to tacit knowledge (silent knowledge) which serves an important role in expert performance. One could argue that giving these summary labels explanatory status obfuscates further investigation. From a behavior analytical point of view, the fundamental question is: what are the generic and specific behavioral principles involved in building expert repertoires? Inspired by Catania’s emphasis of the interplay of contingency shaping and rule-governance in expert performance, this paper aims to answer that question with a behavioral interpretation. The first two sections will cover generic and particular verbal and non-verbal behavior necessary for acquiring the behavioral repertoire called expert performance. A third section points out the role of aesthetic reactions – as presented by Francis Mechner – in acquiring expertise, performing expertly, and in establishing success criteria. The three sections will cumulate in a five-stage interpretation of expert performance followed by a discussion of context-specific patterns of behavior in the learning process, and practical implications thereof. Supplementing the main theoretical framework of behavior analysis, concepts are imported from other research traditions such as mainstream psychology. A general plan for research on domain-specific repertoires using mixed research methodologies and non-experimental participatory designs is outlined, as well as areas of further research.