THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF PROBLEM CHARACTERISTICS ON EXPERTS AND NOVICES JUDGMENTS

A growing body of literature suggests that experts are little if at al l better than novices in terms of the quality of decision outputs, To explain this counter-intuitive finding, the authors propose a conceptu al framework that focuses on initial problem structure as a key modera tor of the effect of expertise on performance, Specifically, they argu e that the expert-novice performance differential should be greatest a t moderate levels of problem structure and weakest at both extremes. T o examine this central hypothesis, the authors conduct a controlled ex periment that compares experts with novices when solving a complex pro blem that had characteristics of a moderately ill-structured problem, Relative to novices, the authors find that experts select fewer, but m ore diagnostic, information inputs and are more consistent when evalua ting nonquantified inputs, As a result, they make more accurate and ti ghtly clustered judgments than do novices, and. also are more confiden t in their decisions. To examine the moderating influence of problem c haracteristics, certain task variables are manipulated to increase or decrease initial problem structure. As hypothesized, the benefits of e xpertise are less pronounced when solving a problem with increased ini tial structure.