[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0043[/img] [br] Why does the professor

Listen to a conversation between a student (S) and his psychology professor(P).
S: Thanks for meeting with me, Professor Davis. I really enjoy your class. It even got me thinking of changing my major to psychology.
P: I think you’d be a good fit. You’re always full of insightful questions and actually, I didn’t see you at the informational meeting for the psychology club, but I think it’s something you’d enjoy.
S: Well, I wanted to go, but I had a study group for another class. The club sounds great: lectures from people in the fields, volunteering opportunities. It all seems really useful.
P: Yes, it’s a valuable experience and fun. When I was a student, unlike some other fields, psychology’s such a broad field. What clubs like these offer—the events, lectures, internship opportunities—they helped me find a focus when I was in school, and that’s why I offered to be the club advisor. And you know, we’re meeting tonight. A few students will be talking about their summer internships.
S: I’d love to go, especially if I decide to major in psych, but I have another study group tonight for our class actually. We’re going over the nerve pathways of the brain, and we’re going to talk about the research essay.
P: Good idea. The first paper is always a little daunting.
S: Exactly, especially since... well, that’s why I’m here actually. We’ve covered so much like the background on brain anatomy, the case studies, and articles on decision-making and problem solving, so I’m wondering how to approach this.
P: Well, look to the central task: a case study, an analysis of a particular psychological process. Use that as a basis to organize what you’ve learned about the biological basis of behavior. You have to demonstrate that you can connect all the information we’ve covered in class. Use it to draw conclusions about that psychological process.
S: But surely, different people could come up with different conclusions?
P: Yes, but if your analysis makes sense and incorporates what we’ve learned in class, you’ll get credit. I know it’s tough, but do you remember what we were saying in class about experts and novices?
S: Well, experts recognize patterns in information, right, where novices might just see random details, so experts can solve problems faster.
P: Yes, and to be able to do that, experts have to go through a lot of trial and error to hone their skills.
S: They couldn’t see those patterns without all of the experience of connecting the information.
P: You said it, so consider this an exercise.
S: It’s like in that article you had us read about that experiment, about the physics problem in Newton’s Laws of Motion.
P: Right, the difference in how experts and novices approach the problem.
S: Yeah, it was interesting to see that novices tried to solve it by recalling equations, like plugging numbers into equations, formulas and the like. You see, experts, on the other hand, they would first think about the major principles like Newton’s Laws and how and why those laws applied to the physics problem.