In the Matter with Things (2021), McGilchrist raises many fascinating points which are relevant to expertise. One of the points we could extract is the price of expertise.
McGilchrist’s research is focused on the role the left and right hemisphere of the brain play in human existence. Crudely put, the left hemisphere is concerned with locating targets for manipulation in aid of achieving our goals and developing theories and narratives to justify our goals and manipulations. Expressed another way, I want this object for this goal, and this is the reason why. The left side likes procedures and processes. The right side of the hemisphere is concerned more with context and establishing the bigger picture, not just narrow goal direction. The right side can imagine whether a goal could be modified or explored in a different way (Drawn from McGilchrist, 2021).
McGilchrist identifies four ways of thinking to illustrate how we as human beings can encounter the world, make sense of our surroundings, and work out what to do. The four types of thinking are listed below
Science- the experimental method
Reason- systematically drawing conclusions
Intuition- a tacit sense of what feels right or wrong and feelings of how to act
Imagination- considering what else could be beyond what is seen and what is known scientifically and through reason (ibid)
The first two ways of thinking would seem to associate more with the left side of the brain as they are essentially systems for drawing conclusions and manipulating the environment. The later ways of thinking seem to more closely associate with the right side of the brain as they are modes which seek to place experience in context by sensing how a situation feels and the potential for what the situation could be beyond it’s prima facie qualities.
When we discover and try something new, we use the right side of the brain. The new situation requires us to draw from our intuition, what does this experience feel like, what feels right and what feels wrong. We use our imagination to try and make sense of the situation and how we could effectively participate with it.
To illustrate, imagine learning how to play a musical instrument. The instructions alone would not be enough, you would imagine what carrying out those instructions feels like and what it would feel like to play the instrument well, the feeling of pulling strings and moving your fingers. Your intuition would alert you to whether this experience felt exciting or daunting drawing from your historic episodic memory to do so, and give you a sense of whether the experience was going right or wrong. As your learning took place, you would imagine how you could improve and do things better.
As you became more proficient the left side of the brain would become more dominant. You would develop routines based on what works well and what doesn’t. You would not need your imagination and intuition so much because you know what will happen. This would make the playing of an instrument more process like. And this is the problem of expertise.
When we are developing expertise, we use our imagination and intuition to support our learning. When we gain expertise, we develop routines to do things efficiently, and we rely on thinking which is more scientific and based on reason; in this situation when I see or feel A then B will happen. This can mean that we stop imagining. If we stop imagining we can rely too much on what we already know, our model of the world becomes more static, and we stop noticing small discriminations and changes in the environment (Klein et al, 2017).
To ensure that expertise does not become fossilized and outdated we must always attempt to use our imagination regardless of our familiarity with situations. We must always ask of ourselves and others, what else could this be? Does this feel right or wrong? If we do, then the mind is likely to remain far more receptive to the external environment, and we’ll be using both hemispheres of brain.
Reading
Klein, Gary & Shneiderman, Ben & Hoffman, Robert & Ford, Kenneth. (2017). Why Expertise Matters: A Response to the Challenges. IEEE Intelligent Systems. 32. 67-73
McGilchrist, I (2021) The Matter of Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World. Perspectiva
