There is a letter from John Campion in the 12 December "New Scientist"
in which he says:
"Cognitive psychologist Gary Klein has been demonstrating for over 20
years that experts making decisions in demanding situations rely on rich
repertoires of situation templates derived from many thousands of hours'
practice, rather than explicit analytical techniques. This is an
extension of work done by Peter Wason, Philip Johnson-Laird and others,
which showed that people's decisions rely on mental models of specific
situations and not on logic or the sort of rationality measured by IQ,
or even RQ [rationality quotient] tests."
Hear hear. But we are not limited by our own individual thousands of
hours' practice, or the expertise gained by the specific situations in
which we have been. We are as capable as we are because we have acquired
the surrogate practice of others' experience, through education, through
training, through working alongside, through listening; through becoming
members of traditions, groups and communities in which the templates of
our own experience are challenged, drawn upon, drawn out, and added to.
We learn from others' experience - from the Past, from History.
Earlier this year I asked list members' help with an online
questionnaire, in support of our application to the Heritage Lottery
Fund for a £197,700 grant for a project entitled "Therapeutic Living
With Other People's Children: An oral history of residential therapeutic
child care c. 1930 - c. 1980." I am very pleased to report that our
application was successful. Work will begin in the New Year. The
interest shown through the questionnaire was part of the essential
evidence we presented in our application, and I am writing to say Thankyou.
A number of people expressed a willingness, through the questionnaire,
to help with the project. The questionnaire was, of course, anonymous,
so please get in touch with me directly if you are willing and able to
help in some way. If you would like to see what the project is about in
detail, there is a PowerPoint at the bottom of the page at
http://www.otherpeopleschildren.org.uk.
Stated briefly: The aim of the project is to reach into hitherto
inaccessible archives and personal memories and to bring the thousands
and thousands of hours of 'practice' and human experience they contain
into the public domain, where they can enrich the mental models the work
depends on, and augment the rich repertoires of situation templates
available to ourselves, the people we live and work with, and society at
large. That, in turn, ought to lead to "better", if not "more creative";
or perhaps especially to "more creative".
With very many thanks and best wishes,
Craig
--
Dr. Craig Fees, RMSA
Archivist
Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre
Church Lane
Toddington near Cheltenham
Glos. GL54 5DQ
United Kingdom
01242 620125
http://www.pettarchiv.org.uk
Keep up to date with Archive News, Events and Recent Accessions: The Archive and study Centre blog at http://news.pettarchiv.org.uk/
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