This paper on the nature of expertise discusses implications of findings of an earlier study into the problem-solving, problem-finding and thought processes of 3 groups: 20 professional artists (experts), 20 semiprofessional artists (non-experts), and 20 non-artists (novices), each group consisting of 10 male and 10 female adults. Subjects were all given a "game" and instructed to "do whatever you like with it" and then asked later to verbally recount their mental processes as they observed a videotape of themselves. Results are discussed in terms of differing attitudes of experts versus non-experts and novices toward play, creative thought, personal aesthetic biases, and selected perception. Examples from the study are used in a discussion of the role of aesthetics in creative thought and sense of responsibility to the solution; i.e., knowing when a solution is "good," or "right," not simply when the task is "done." Implications considered include the possibility that aesthetic development may be critical to the development of creative thought and the need to reconsider the pedagogy involved in developmental approaches to defining or identifying exceptional ability in the visual arts. (Contains 38 references.) (DB)