Expertise advantage of automatic prediction in visual motion representation is domain-general: A meta-analysis

The expertise advantage denotes the superior perceptual-cognitive skills exhibited by experts. Nevertheless, the extent to which the expertise advantage influences automatic prediction in visual motion representation remains unclear. This meta-analysis aims to consolidate findings from various studies on the expertise advantage of automatic prediction in visual motion representation. We identified empirical research literature that measured expertise advantage of automatic prediction from the Web of Science (Core Collection), APA PsycInfo, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases. We identified 16 studies contributing 23 effect sizes from a pool of 1110 records. The standardized mean difference (Hedges’ g) was computed for the expertise advantage. The meta-analysis results reveal that, in comparison to novices, experts demonstrate superior automatic prediction in visual motion representation (Hedges' g = 0.73, 95% CI [0.54, 0.92]). Moderator analyses suggest that, when measuring the expertise advantage of automatic prediction, the effect size of the recall task is significantly larger than that of the recognition task. Other moderating variables did not exhibit significant moderating effects. These results suggest that the expertise advantage extends to automatic prediction in visual motion representation, and that this advantage is general, stable, and widespread.