PhD defence C.C.A. (Christine) van Nooijen

Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:

When a police officer looks into a busy street, or an art historian looks at a painting, they see crucial details that beginners might miss. This expertise makes professionals excel at their jobs. But when professionals are asked to teach a beginner, this knowledge can form a barrier to understanding- “Don’t you see what I mean?”

This dissertation targets expert-beginner interactions when learning to ‘see’ like an expert. First, we investigate how experts and novices interact, including their speech, gestures, and where they look. We compile previously published studies, which we categorise using established theories about working memory. We find that experts direct attention and group information together to support beginners. We next study whether measuring where two people are looking truly captures whether they know they are ‘on the same page’, finding that this is largely the case. We then capture expert-beginner interaction in a forensic context, finding patterns in how speech, gestures and gaze behaviour align.

Armed with this knowledge, we implement two interventions to support these interactions. We record how an expert police officer ‘looks’ at hazardous scenarios, and show students their eye movements. We also prompt students in a VR museum about how to ask questions to an AI expert. We find some changes in how experts and beginners interact, but no reliable differences in learning.

Ultimately, we better understand how expert-beginner interactions work, but can't prove that our interventions will support these interactions. We discuss ideas for future approaches that build on our findings.