A Collaborative Notion of Expertise

In hazardous environments, the accumulated body of experience that consti-ttites local knowledge does not exist independently in a single document. Instead, this knowledge is distributed throughout the entire Cycle. Distinctions 

Experts, in the very general sense that 1 am using the term, represent problems in ways that facilitate problem solving. They have acquired the tools to discriminate between relevant and non-relevant information in problem solv- 

But performance alone does not constitute expertise. Expert miners can identify hazards because they have experienced and observed hazards. They have analyzed the consequences. They can interpret standards and regulations, understand the systems in which they work, assess changes in the environment, and communicate these changes to colleagues and management. 

Even the most experienced individual (in all three senses above) does not recognize 100% of all hazards simultaneously. In one study, experienced miners could recognize only half of the detectable hazards in an en- 

Mental models approach Influence diagram for risk produced by radon. Source Bostrom, Fischhoff, and Morgan (1992). (In Morgan, Fischhoff, Bostrom,. Atman, 2001, p. 49). Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press. 

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