Psych 240-Lecture 20

Front 1

Conclusion from Chase and Simon (chess)

Back 1

Chess masters
Superior memory limited to real chess positions.
They do not have better memory in general.

Expertise allows chunking of board positions.

Experts have organized knowledge. Reflects deep understanding.

Front 2

Expert vs. Novices (6 things)

Back 2

Rich, organized schemas
Lots of well-organized declarative and procedural knowledge
More sophisticated representations

Spend more time on representation
experts take longer to analyze problem and start solution, but less time to complete it

Recognize subcomponents

Less Means-End analysis
pre-stored solutions in long term memory
fewer demands on working memory

Move forward, not backward

Experts often no better than novices on problems outside their area of expertise
Can be worse

Front 3

Talent view

Back 3

Innate (inherited) abilities limit the ultimate level of performance one can attain
Deliberate practice is necessary but not sufficient

Front 4

Deliberate practice view

Back 4

“Practicing more intensively than others is probably the most reasonable explanation we have today, not only of success in any line, but even for genius” (John Watson, 1930)
Deliberate practice is necessary and sufficient

Front 5

Deliberate practice perspective

Back 5

Ericsson
“we reject any important role for innate ability” (Ericsson et al., 1993)

Evidence for innate talent (“giftedness”) is thin.

Differences in deliberate practice account for differing levels of achievement among experts.

Front 6

What is deliberate practice

Back 6

Focused
Guided by conscious performance monitoring
Identification of errors
Appropriate, immediate feedback (teachers or self-generated)
Set new, specific goals that go beyond current performance
Elite figure skaters spend more time on challenging jumps than less-elite counterparts. Failed more. (Deakin and Cobley, 2003)
Don’t settle for comfortable level of automaticity.

Front 7

Don't settle

Back 7

Rather than automaticity at a level that is just ok, stay in cognitive/associative stages

Front 8

Conclusion of study of violinists

Back 8

Conclusion: Difference between good and exceptional musicians can be accounted for by the amount of practice

Not just playing, but motivated
practice with repetition and
feedback

Front 9

10,000 hour rule

Back 9

10,000 hour rule: It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve world-class mastery.
(roughly 3 hours per day for 10 years)

In any field: composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals (Levitan, 2006)

Front 10

If deliberate practice is the critical factor, then the amount needed should be fairly constant

Back 10

In chess, some people practice 20,000 or more hours and do not achieve master status

Some people are able to attain master status in 3,000 hours

Front 11

Evidence that expertise depends on more than just the amount of deliberate practice

Back 11

The very best performance depends on practice starting during a critical period in development.

Highest chess performers (masters, grand masters) started earlier than lower performers, almost all before the age of 12. (Gobet & Campinelli, 2007)


Perfect pitch can be taught if instruction happens when a child is 3-5 years old.

Deliberate practice won't work alone if too late

Front 12

Stuff with WM capacity

Back 12

Deliberate practice view: differences in working memory capacity will not be related to performance differences among experts. (prediction)

Contrary to deliberate practice view, the best experts have a greater WM capacity.
Meinz and Hambrick (2010)

Deliberate practice alone can’t account for expertise.

Front 13

Bottom line on expertise

Back 13

There is probably some role for basic/innate abilities, but years of deliberate practice can lead to great achievements.

Basic/innate abilities and deliberate practice probably interact. Deliberate practice is necessary and sufficient to attain a high level of achievement, but basic abilities might still impose some limits at the very highest levels.