Extracting expertise from experts: Methods for knowledge acquisition

Knowledge acquisition is the biggest bottleneck in the development of expert systems. Fortunately, the process of translating expert knowledge to a form suitable for expert system development can benefit from methods developed by cognitive science to reveal human knowledge structures. There are two classes of these investigative methods, direct and indirect. We provide reviews, criteria for use, and literature sources for all principal methods. Direct methods discussed are: interviews, questionnaires, observation of task performance, protocol analysis, interruption analysis, closed curves, and inferential flow analysis. Indirect methods include: multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, general weighted networks, ordered trees, and repertory grid analysis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73498/1/j.1468-0394.1987.tb00139.x.pd