This article discusses frameworks for studying expertise at the knowledge level and knowledge-use level. It reviews existing approaches such as inference structures, the distinction between deep and surface knowledge, problem-solving methods, and generic tasks. A new synthesis is put forward in the form of a componential framework that stresses modularity and an analysis of the pragmatic constraints on the task. The analysis of a rule from an existing expert system (the Dipmeter Advisor) is used to illustrate the framework.

This work was supported in part by the Belgian IWONL Program on Expert Systems.

Peer Reviewed