ERRORS AND GEOLOGIC WORKING MEMORY

Longstanding studies into the nature of expertise have identified important hypotheses about the role of working memory capacity in building expert behavior. In some studies, working memory is directly tied to expert performance, with greater working memory producing more expert-like behaviors. In other work, including with geoscientists, experts are able to circumvent their limitations and develop work-arounds to expert behavior that are not strongly correlated to working memory. In addition to memory capacity, the role of precision in working memory suggests that the presence of errors in recalled information may be a more precise measure of working memory capacity than simple recall. In addition, both the type and rate of errors present in recalled information are also correlated to expertise. In a study of visuospatial working memory capacity, novices and experts were asked to view block diagrams and draw these diagrams from memory. Two types of diagrams, containing either geologically plausible or implausible scenarios, were used. Differences in precision and error types between novices and experts, as well as between block type, indicate the presence of important nuances in how geologic information is encoded and retrieved by different groups. This work provides insight into the nature of internal visual representations as well as potential for recall errors during complex tasks.