ABSTRACT
So far, this book has explained how diagnosis can be conceptualized as the extent to which feature-event associations are extracted from the environment to serve as cues for identifying problems and predicting outcomes. Examples have been presented from a range of occupational contexts to show how cue acquisition facilitates context-specific diagnosis. A key conclusion appears to be that – compared to novices or proficient workers – those who are ‘experts’ (i.e. those who have a high level of ability at forming feature-event associations, and who have also had sufficient time to do so in a particular work context) are superior at accurately diagnosing a situation within that work context. Consequently, experts are likely to make better decisions than non-experts.
