WORKSHOP SUPPORT: Acquiring and Using Interactional Expertise: Psychological, Sociological, and Philosophical Perspectives

San Jose State University Foundation, San Jose CA

Investigators

Abstract

This workshop will bring together two emerging communities of scholars who share an interest in the study of scientific expertise, but who speak different disciplinary languages. These communities are represented by two young organizations, the International Society for the Psychology of Science and Technology (ISPST) and Studies in Experience and Expertise (SEE). SEE scholars have identified a new category of expertise they refer to as ?interactional? because it is the ability to speak the language of a discipline without being able to do the research. For example, a leading SEE scholar become an interactional expert in gravitational wave physics. ISPST scholars have a long tradition of studying scientific and technological expertise using methods and perspectives that are not familiar to SEE scholars. This workshop will facilitate development of a new, interdisciplinary framework for: a) empirically investigating how people learn to become interactional experts; b) analyzing how to accelerate the development of interactional expertise; c) identifying the various forms of tacit knowledge and implicit learning processes that interactional experts need to master; and d) identifying interactional experts in both contemporary and historical contexts; as well as developing existing ?imitation game? experiments and considering new methods for empirically testing to what extent an individual has attained interactional expertise. One expected end result will be the discovery of new categories of expertise. Findings from this workshop will be relevant to the management of large, interdisciplinary scientific collaborations, especially ones in which social scientists, ethicists and policy makers need to be involved. The workshop organizers are committed to supporting the attendance and involvement of graduate students working in this area, including groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM disciplines. Initial dissemination mechanisms will include the SEE and ISPST web-sites and papers in a special issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences.