title: How chunks, long-term working memory and templates offer a cognitive explanation for neuroimaging data on expertise acquisition: a two-stage framework.
abstract: Our review of research on PET and fMRI neuroimaging of experts and expertise acquisition reveals two apparently discordant patterns in working-memory-related tasks. When experts are involved, studies show activations in brain regions typically activated during long-term memory tasks that are not observed with novices, a result that is compatible with functional brain reorganization. By contrast, when involving novices and training programs, studies show a decrease in brain regions typically activated during working memory tasks, with no functional reorganization. We suggest that the latter result is a consequence of practice periods that do not allow important structures to be completely acquired: knowledge structures (i.e., Ericsson and Kintsch's retrieval structures; Gobet and Simon's templates) and in a lesser way, chunks. These structures allow individuals to improve performance on working-memory tasks, by enabling them to use part of long-term memory as working memory, causing a cerebral functional reorganization. Our hypothesis is that the two brain activation patterns observed in the literature are not discordant, but involve the same process of expertise acquisition in two stages: from decreased activation to brain functional reorganization. The dynamic of these two physiological stages depend on the two above-mentioned psychological constructs: chunks and knowledge structures.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Psychologie, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne Billancourt, France. alessandro.guida@univ-rennes2.fr
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guida
authors.forename: Fernand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gobet
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tardieu
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nicolas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011582:Psychological Theory