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Science 20 June 1980:
Vol. 208. no. 4450, pp. 1335 - 1342
DOI: 10.1126/science.208.4450.1335
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Articles

Expert and Novice Performance in Solving Physics Problems

Jill Larkin 1, John McDermott 2, Dorothea P. Simon 1, and Herbert A. Simon 3

1 Members of the Psychology Department, Carnegie-Mellon University
2 Member of the Computer Science Department, Carnegie-Mellon University
3 Member of the Psychology Department and Computer Science Department, Carnegie-Mellon University

Although a sizable body of knowledge is prerequisite to expert skill, that knowledge must be indexed by large numbers of patterns that, on recognition, guide the expert in a fraction of a second to relevant parts of the knowledge store. The knowledge forms complex schemata that can guide a problem's interpretation and solution and that constitute a large part of what we call physical intuition.


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