SOURCES OF EXPERT ADVICE - A COMPARISON OF PEER-REVIEWED ADVICE FROM THE LITERATURE WITH THAT FROM AN AUTOMATED PERFORMANCE SUPPORT SYSTEM

The treatment of aggression, self-injury, and property destruction is difficult for clinicians. To ease their burden, clinicians may receive help in developing treatments from the scientific literature or from the new automated performance support systems. This study compares the treatment suggestions offered by these two sources of expert advice a cross 30 clients. Four clinicians obtained consultations from the Ment al Retardation-Expert (MR-E), and an automated performance support sys tem, for client descriptions abstracted from the literature. The resul ts indicated that MR-E, when compared with the literature, offered mor e positive proactive treatment suggestions, relied more on accelerativ e rather than decelerative approaches, and offered more treatments fro m which the clinician could choose.