title: Expert-novice differences in memory: a reformulation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the most discriminating measures of expertise in multiple domains has been performance on memory tasks. In medicine, however, the relation between expertise and memory is more equivocal.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare and contrast the sufficiency of multiple explanations of this finding by using three probes of memory rather than the traditional free recall task alone.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students, residents, and internists were asked to read case histories and assign diagnoses before undertaking free recall, cued recall, and recognition tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students consistently outperformed internists. Resident performance was more variable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data appear to rule out (a) the notion that expert memory for cases takes on an encapsulated form, (b) the idea that experts simply say less than students in response to a free recall task, and (c) the possibility that experts attend differentially to highly diagnostic features. The results can best be explained by the idea that students process the featural details of a case history more elaborately than do expert diagnosticians who, instead, read medical cases more holistically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, T-13, Room 101, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. evakw@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Kevin W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Eva
authors.forename: Geoffrey R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Neville
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Lee R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Brooks
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011939:Mental Recall; D013337:Students, Medical