Expert and Exceptional Performance: Evidence of maximal adaptation to task constraints

1. Expert and Exceptional Performance: Evidence of maximal adaptation to task constraints Ericsson, A.M., & & Lehmann, A.C. (1996). Ann. Rev. Psychol., 47, 273-305.

2. Expertise & Skilled Performance • skill: Welford (1968) “..competent, expert, rapid, and accurate performance.” • expertise: Ericsson & Charness (1994) “Consistently superior performance on a specified set of representative tasks for the domain that can be administered to any subject.” • skill: Proctor & Dutta (1995) “Skill is goal-directed, well-organized behavior that is acquired through practice and performed with economy of effort.” From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

3. From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

4. Expertise: Measurement • Experience/Certification • Seniority (undergrads, grads, professors) • Certification (specializations in medicine) • Peer nomination • Encyclopedia citations, awards • Field-based superiority using lab-like measurement precision (sports) • Lab-based superiority • solves difficult problems from the domain better than 95% of the domain population From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

5. Some general findings • Experts • Extract new and more informative perceptual features to improve performance • Circumvent delays (i.e., RT) by advance preparation and concurrent processes • Dynamic adjustments of motor system (force change within 50 ms) with great precision (~ 2 ms) • Dramatic change in access to LTM (search and retrieval) as well as just larger domain-specific knowledge

6. Are Experts Born or Made? • The Innate Talent View • Experts are born with domain-specific abilities • Experts learn faster than normal and forget more slowly than normal • Experts have an intense desire to engage in their activity: “The Rage to Master” (Winner) • Practice is necessary but not sufficient for achievement (everyone cannot become an expert) From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

7. Are Experts Born or Made? • The Deliberate Practice View (Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Howe et al., 1998) • Individual differences in native ability have little impact on the acquisition of expertise • 1000 to 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are necessary to achieve expertise, and anyone can do it • deliberate practice is hard work and can only be maintained about 4-5 hours per day • coaches and parents are important resources From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

8. Does it Matter: Talent versus Practice for Expertise? • An innate talent view (e.g., The Bell Curve) suggests that society should expend resources to create valid selection tests to find talented individuals to develop. • A deliberate practice view suggests that society is better off devoting resources to producing effective motivation and training programs. From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

9. Need to Understand? • What are the knowledge and processing differences between novices and experts? • How do people acquire skill? • What factors support the attainment of expert performance? • Are there critical periods for acquiring skill? • At what age do people reach their peak? • How is skill maintained over the life-span? • What is talent? From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

10. Need to Understand? • What are the typical experimental methods to study expertise? • What is the “power law” of learning? • How well do skills transfer to new domains? • What are the major theories of skill acquisition? • When is it better to learn a new skill by practicing the entire behavior versus learning it component by component? • What are good practice schedules for skill acquisition? From: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~charness/courses/expertise/s2002/expertise_intro_files/frame.htm

11. What is repeated in a repetition? Effects of practice conditions on motor skill acquisition T.D., Lee, L.R. Swanson, & A.L., Hall (1991). Physical Therapy, 71, 150-156.

12. Practice and Repetition • Practice is the key ingredient towards learning motor skills • Movement repetition is key ingredient, if not the key ingredient, in practice.

13. What is repeated in a repetition?

14. What is repeated? • Contextual Interference • Random practice is superior to blocked practice with respect to long term retention and transfer • Scheduling of Knowledge of Results (KR) • Continued focus on same item results in poorer retention • Observational Learning • Repetition may not have to be physical repetition but should entail similar cognitive operations