Abstract
The study of memory is central to scientific understanding of expertise. Memory processes underpin skilled performance in complex tasks, whether choosing a move in a chess game, playing a musical instrument, or diagnosing a medical patient. Moreover, acquiring expertise changes memory structures. This chapter reviews major perspectives on expertise and used the umbrella term knowledge structure to refer to all the types of memory structures proposed in theories of memory based on expertise research, including chunks, templates, retrieval structures, and semantic knowledge. Those theories postulate that knowledge structures reside in the long-term memory store and accept the traditional dual models of the macrostructure of memory (i.e., models that postulate the existence of a short-term [or working] memory store and a long-term memory store). This chapter also presents a recent proposal in the field of expertise research that suggests knowledge structures constitute the macrostructure of memory, and it reviews brain imaging studies investigating the interrelation between memory and expertise. The effect of individual differences in traditional measures of working memory capacity on expertise is discussed. The chapter concludes with thoughts on productive directions for future research.