EXPERTISE AND INFORMATION-SEEKING IN SOLVING COMPLEX CONFIGURATION TASKS

A recurring result in comparing diagnostic reasoning processes of indi viduals with different levels of expertise is that experts are more fl exible in changing and modifying hypotheses and strategies. Content of reasoning is dependent on the level of expertise as well. The present study tested whether these results, reported in the field of diagnost ic reasoning, are also valid in solving configuration problems. Two gr oups of truck salesmen (n = 70) at different levels of expertise (expe rts: 16.8 years; novices: 0.9 years of training on the jab) in their d omain were presented with two real-world tasks differing in complexity . Subjects were asked to solve these problems by first naming and then sequentially using information units they needed in configuring the t ruck. The results indicate that only in a very difficult task the numb er of used concepts and the homogeneity of search differed between lev els of expertise. The higher the difficulty of the task, the smaller t he number and heterogeneity of concepts experts used compared to novic es. Contrary to previous results, breadth of search was similar for bo th groups, as well as content of reasoning.