Human skill in a computerized society: Complex skills and their acquisition

Some of the issues posed to cognitive psychologists by the computer revolution are explored. These include competition between humans and machines, destruction of apprenticeship opportunities by automation, the issue of flexibility of intelligence, and related issues. This is followed by a discussion of a program of work on the acquisition of a complex skill, radiological diagnosis. Differences and similarities of that domain to other recently studied domains are discussed. The concluding section discusses the need for longitudinal approaches to verifying theory about complex skill learning.