Overview
Topic status: We're looking for students to study this topic.
Expert elicitation involves quantitative scientists (such as mathematicians or statisticians) working with experts to translate their knowledge into numbers. Expert knowledge is invaluable in pioneering research where little empirical data is available, although the pressure is on to make decisions. Examples include: conservation of rare species like the brush-tailed rock wallaby; and assessing detectability and risks of invasive species. Elicitation has had multi-disciplinary contributions from teaching, psychology, philosophy and risk assessment, as well as statistics (Bayesian and classical). Although considerable research has been undertaken about how laypeople interpret probabilities, little has examined how experts do this. This project will focus on one or two particular groups of experts, and examine how they think about probabilities, in particular the logical fallacies they are most susceptible to. This also affects the way in which experts develop their expertise: how they assimilate the scientific literature in the field, and how they interpret the findings of their own studies.
- Study level
- Honours
- Supervisors
- QUT
- Organisational unit
Faculty of Science and Technology
- Research area
- Contact
- Please contact the supervisor.
Dr Sama Low Choy
Dr Therese Wilson
