The Oxford Handbook of Expertise

The study of expertise weaves its way through various communities of practice, across disciplines, and over millennia. To date, the study of expertise has been primarily concerned with how human beings perform at a superior level in complex environments and sociotechnical systems, and at the highest levels of proficiency. However, more recent research has continued the search for better descriptions, and causal mechanisms that explain the complexities of expertise in context, with a view to translating this understanding into useful predictions and interventions capable of improving the performance of human systems as efficiently as possible.

The Oxford Handbook of Expertise provides a comprehensive picture of the field of Expertise Studies. It offers both traditional and contemporary perspectives, and importantly, a multidiscipline-multimethod view of the science and engineering research on expertise. The book presents different perspectives, theories, and methods of conducting expertise research, all of which have had an impact in helping us better understand expertise across a broad range of domains. The Handbook also describes how researchers and practitioners have addressed practical problems and societal challenges. Throughout, the authors have sought to demonstrate the heterogeneity of approaches and conceptions of expertise, to place current views of expertise in context, to show how these views can be used to address current issues, and to examine ways to advance the study of expertise.

The Oxford Handbook of Expertise is an essential resource both to those wanting to gain an up-to-date knowledge of the science of expertise and those wishing to study experts.

Paul Ward, Lead Applied Cognitive Psychologist and Adjunct Professor of Psychology, The MITRE Corporation and Michigan Technological University, USA, Jan Maarten Schraagen, Professor of Applied Cognitive Psychology, University of Twente, The Netherlands, Julie Gore, Reader in OrganizationalPsychology, School of Management, University of Bath, UK, Emilie M. Roth, Owner and Principal Scientist, Roth Cognitive Engineering, USA

Paul Ward is a Lead Applied Cognitive Psychologist (Human Behavior and Cybersecurity Capability) in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at The MITRE Corporation. He also holds an appointment as adjunct Professor of Psychology at Michigan Technological University. He is a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors specialist, Chartered Psychologist, and Chartered Scientist and internationally known for his pioneering research on expertise, adaptive skill, training, and accelerated learning. He has attracted funding from grant agencies worldwide and published over 100 scientific papers, including a co-authored book entitled Accelerated expertise: Training for high proficiency in a complex world.

Jan Maarten Schraagen is Principal Scientist at TNO and Professor of Applied Cognitive Psychology at University of Twente, The Netherlands. His research interests include adaptive automation, resilience engineering, team communication processes, human-machine teaming, and scenario-based training. He was main editor of Cognitive Task Analysis (2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) and Naturalistic Decision Making and Macrocognition (2008, Ashgate). He is editor in chief of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making. Dr. Schraagen holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Julie Gore is a Reader in Organizational Psychology, at the School of Management, University of Bath, UK.
A Chartered Psychologist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society her research focus is on the psychology of expertise and Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) across a range of professions working under uncertainty. She is Associate Editor for Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology and serves on the boards of the British Journal of Management and Frontiers in Organizational Psychology. Dr Gore holds a PhD in Applied Cognitive Psychology (one of the world’s first in the field of NDM) from Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Dr. Emilie M. Roth is a cognitive psychologist whose work has involved analysis of human problem-solving and decision-making in real-world environments (e.g., military command and control; nuclear power plant emergencies; railroad operations; healthcare), and the impact of support systems (e.g., computerized procedures; alarm systems; advanced graphical displays; new forms of decision-support and automation) on cognitive performance. She is a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, serves on the editorial board of the journal Human Factors, and is a member of the Board on Human-Systems Integration at the National Academies.