[quoting Tripp, 5 Apr 96] I would like to start a discussion of this topic: General skills do not exist.
You may be interested in some of Dr. Sherrie Gott's research on mental models specifically applied to troubleshooting (i.e., problem-solving) skills--she found, and I corroborated in my own experience later, that expertise is very very domain specific. It is based upon a very robust set of facts, concepts, and rules that are almost automated. I guess they're "well-tuned" to use Don Norman's terms. An expert in one domain can be a poor performer in another, where this foundation knowledge does not exist.
Gott, S.P. (1989). Apprenticeship instruction for real-world tasks: The coordination of procedures, mental models, and strategies. In E.Z. Rothkoph, (Ed.), Review of Research in Education, Vol 15, (pp. 97-169). Washington DC: American Educational Research Association.