Adaptation and Fallibility in Experts' Judgments of Novice Performers

Competition judges are often selected for their expertise, under the belief that a high level of performance expertise should enable accurate judgments of the competitors. Contrary to this assumption, we find evidence that expertise can reduce judgment accuracy. Adaptation level theory proposes that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2017-02, Vol.43 (2), p.271-288
Main Authors: Larson, Jeffrey S, Billeter, Darron M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Acoustic Stimulation
Adaptation, Psychological - physiology
Adjustment
Auditory Perception - physiology
Bayesian Statistics
Competition
Comprehension
Cooperative Behavior
Cues
Dance
Dance Education
Decision Making
Experience Level
Experimental psychology
Expertise
Female
Functional Laterality
Human
Humans
Judges
Judgment
Knowledge Level
Learning
Male
Music
Music Education
Novices
Predictive Measurement
Professional Competence
Singing
Students
Undergraduate Students
Universities
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Summary:Competition judges are often selected for their expertise, under the belief that a high level of performance expertise should enable accurate judgments of the competitors. Contrary to this assumption, we find evidence that expertise can reduce judgment accuracy. Adaptation level theory proposes that discriminatory capacity decreases with greater distance from one's adaptation level. Because experts' learning has produced an adaptation level close to ideal performance standards, they may be less able to discriminate among lower-level competitors. As a result, expertise increases judgment accuracy of high-level competitions but decreases judgment accuracy of low-level competitions. Additionally, we demonstrate that, consistent with an adaptation level theory account of expert judgment, experts systematically give more critical ratings than intermediates or novices. In summary, this work demonstrates a systematic change in human perception that occurs as task learning increases.
ISSN:0278-7393
1939-1285
DOI:10.1037/xlm0000304