@article{gray17csj-pdl,
title = {Plateaus, Dips, and Leaps: Where to Look for Inventions and Discoveries during Skilled Performance},
author = {Wayne D. Gray and John K. Lindstedt},
url = {http://homepages.rpi.edu/~grayw/pubs/papers/2017/gray17csj-pdl.pdf},
doi = {10.1111/cogs.12412},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-10-18},
journal = {Cognitive Science},
volume = {41},
number = {7},
pages = {1838-1870},
abstract = {The framework of plateaus, dips, and leaps shines light on periods when individuals may be inventing new methods of skilled performance. We begin with a review of the role performance plateaus have played in (a) experimental psychology, (b) human--computer interaction, and (c) cognitive science. We then reanalyze two classic studies of individual performance to show plateaus and dips which resulted in performance leaps. For a third study, we show how the statistical methods of Changepoint Analysis plus a few simple heuristics may direct our focus to periods of performance change for individuals. For the researcher, dips become the marker of exploration where performance suffers as new methods are invented and tested. Leaps mark the implementation of a successful new method and an incremental jump above the path plotted by smooth and steady log--log performance increments. The methods developed during these dips and leaps are the key to surpassing one's teachers and acquiring extreme expertise.},
keywords = {BreakOut, changepoint detection, digit span, dips, expertise, extreme expertise, leaps, performance, plateaus, Space Fortress},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The framework of plateaus, dips, and leaps shines light on periods when individuals may be inventing new methods of skilled performance. We begin with a review of the role performance plateaus have played in (a) experimental psychology, (b) human--computer interaction, and (c) cognitive science. We then reanalyze two classic studies of individual performance to show plateaus and dips which resulted in performance leaps. For a third study, we show how the statistical methods of Changepoint Analysis plus a few simple heuristics may direct our focus to periods of performance change for individuals. For the researcher, dips become the marker of exploration where performance suffers as new methods are invented and tested. Leaps mark the implementation of a successful new method and an incremental jump above the path plotted by smooth and steady log--log performance increments. The methods developed during these dips and leaps are the key to surpassing one's teachers and acquiring extreme expertise.
@conference{marc16csc,
title = {Where Should Researchers Look for Strategy Discoveries during the Acquisition of Complex Task Performance? The Case of Space Fortress},
author = {Destefano, Marc and Gray, Wayne D.},
editor = {Papafragou, A. and Grodner, D. and Mirman, D. and Trueswell, J. C.},
url = {http://homepages.rpi.edu/~grayw/pubs/papers/2016/marc16csc.pdf},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-08-05},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society},
publisher = {Cognitive Science Society},
address = {Austin, TX},
abstract = {In complex task domains, such as games, students may exceed their teachers. Such tasks afford diverse means to tradeoff one type of performance for another, combining task elements in novel ways to yield method variations and strategy discoveries that, if mastered, might produce large or small leaps in performance. For the researcher interested in the development of extreme expertise in the wild, the problem posed by such tasks is ``where to look'' to capture the explorations, trials, errors, and successes that eventually lead to the invention of superior performance. In this paper, we present several successful discoveries of methods for superior performance. For these discoveries we used Symbolic Aggregate Approximation as our method of identifying changepoints within score progressions in the venerable game of Space Fortress. By decomposing performance at these changepoints, we find previously unknown strategies that even the designers of the task had not anticipated.},
keywords = {changepoint analysis, dips, expertise, leaps, method invention, performance, plateaus, SAX, skill acquisition, Space Fortress, strategy discovery},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
In complex task domains, such as games, students may exceed their teachers. Such tasks afford diverse means to tradeoff one type of performance for another, combining task elements in novel ways to yield method variations and strategy discoveries that, if mastered, might produce large or small leaps in performance. For the researcher interested in the development of extreme expertise in the wild, the problem posed by such tasks is ``where to look'' to capture the explorations, trials, errors, and successes that eventually lead to the invention of superior performance. In this paper, we present several successful discoveries of methods for superior performance. For these discoveries we used Symbolic Aggregate Approximation as our method of identifying changepoints within score progressions in the venerable game of Space Fortress. By decomposing performance at these changepoints, we find previously unknown strategies that even the designers of the task had not anticipated.
