ID'ing observations for other... Paper on species ID's by experts and non-experts...
So, I was glancing at a few papers today, and I spotted this one:
Species identification by experts and non-experts: comparing images from field guides. G. E. Austen, M. Bindemann, R. A. Griffiths & D. L. Roberts -- Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 33634 (2016)
Abstract: Accurate species identification is fundamental when recording ecological data. However, the ability to correctly identify organisms visually is rarely questioned. We investigated how experts and non-experts compared in the identification of bumblebees, a group of insects of considerable conservation concern. Experts and non-experts were asked whether two concurrent bumblebee images depicted the same or two different species. Overall accuracy was below 60% and comparable for experts and non-experts. However, experts were more consistent in their answers when the same images were repeated, and more cautious in committing to a definitive answer. Our findings demonstrate the difficulty of correctly identifying bumblebees using images from field guides. Such error rates need to be accounted for when interpreting species data, whether or not they have been collected by experts. We suggest that investigation of how experts and non-experts make observations should be incorporated into study design, and could be used to improve training in species identification.
Anyways, I was thinking about the ID system here on iNat. I really enjoy ID'ing observations for folks -- I try to focus on the stuff from TX, but every now and then I try to tackle some observations from outside of TX.
I've been wrong hundreds/thousands of times, probably. My ego's not too too massive -- it's ok that I've been wrong! I do learn a lot from mistakes and from being corrected. And as any natural history collection (digital or physical) goes, each mistake doesn't diminish the integrity of the database -- the mistakes are eventually caught... "Eventually" can mean a long time though. That's the nature of collections! :)
The more folks that ID, the stronger the database gets too. Even if it's verifying an observation that's already been verified/research grade, that's a valuable annotation, in my mind. It's a safe-guard against some of the new folks to iNat that give a more general ID and change the taxon as well.
Tagging some of my favorite ID'er to see if you'd like to look at that paper too.
@greglasley @carrieseltzer @gcwarbler @d_kluza @mako252 @maractwin @aguilita @kueda @kevinhintsa @john8 @loarie @lisa_bennett @nlblock @susanhewitt @cosmiccat @charlie @silversea_starsong @glmory @robberfly @borisb @nathantaylor7583 @muir