The effects of experience during design problem solving

Behavioural and physiological experiments to analsye the development, influence and application of experience during design problem solving are described. The results of the behavioural experiments show, that while novices try to solve assignments through deductive reasoning, experts prefer to apply their experience directly. The electrophysiological experiments indicate, that as a manifestation of this, the regions activated in the human brain during problem solving vary according to the experience a test person has. Novices show a longer activity in the frontal regions whereas the experts seem to have longer activity in the parietal regions of the brain.