Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- 1 Recognizing, Defining, and Representing Problems
- 2 The Acquisition of Expert Performance as Problem Solving: Construction and Modification of Mediating Mechanisms through Deliberate Practice
- PART II RELEVANT ABILITIES AND SKILLS
- PART III STATES AND STRATEGIES
- PART IV CONCLUSION AND INTEGRATION
- Index
- References
2 - The Acquisition of Expert Performance as Problem Solving: Construction and Modification of Mediating Mechanisms through Deliberate Practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- 1 Recognizing, Defining, and Representing Problems
- 2 The Acquisition of Expert Performance as Problem Solving: Construction and Modification of Mediating Mechanisms through Deliberate Practice
- PART II RELEVANT ABILITIES AND SKILLS
- PART III STATES AND STRATEGIES
- PART IV CONCLUSION AND INTEGRATION
- Index
- References
Summary
How do experts reach their high level of performance? Recent reviews (Ericsson, 1996, 1998b, 2001; Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996) dispel the common belief that “talented” expert performers attain very high levels of performance virtually automatically through cumulative domain-related experience. Instead, empirical evidence strongly implies that even the most “talented” individuals in a domain must spend over ten years actively engaging in particular practice activities (deliberate practice) that lead to gradual improvements in skill and adaptations that increase performance.
In this chapter I argue that the acquisition of expert performance can be described as a sequence of mastered challenges with increasing levels of difficulty, such as playing pieces of music, performing challenging gymnastic routines, and solving complex mathematical problems. Different levels of mastery present the learner with different kinds of problems that must be solved for the skill to develop further. And each individual's path toward skilled performance is distinct; it depends on when technical challenges were encountered and the specific methods used to help the individuals continue their development.
When beginners are first introduced to a domain of expertise they can successfully perform only the most simple tasks and activities. With the aid of instruction and training many individuals are able to master increasingly difficult tasks, thus gradually improving and slowly approaching the level of expert performers. The incremental nature of gaining mastery means that tasks that were initially impossible to perform can be executed effortlessly as increased skill is attained.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychology of Problem Solving , pp. 31 - 84Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
References
(1987). Selective attention in fast ball sports. II. Expert-novice differences. Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sports, 19, 7–16Google Scholar
(1991). Visual search strategies and decision-making in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 22, 189–210Google Scholar
(1987). Skill acquisition: Compilation of weak-method problem situations. Psychological Review, 94(2), 192–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & (1980). Further explorations with a process model for water jug problems. Memory & Cognition, 8, 182–192CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, R. (1978). Ecological psychology. Stanford: Stanford University Press
Bloom, B. S. (1985). Generalizations about talent development. In B. S. Bloom (Ed.), Developing talent in young people (pp. 507–549). New York: Ballantine Books
, , & (1964). Concept learning as a function of availability of previously presented information. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 439–448CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
(1943). Organismic achievement and environmental probability. Psychological Review, 50, 255–272CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , & (1988). Time pressure, skill and move quality in chess. American Journal of Psychology, 101, 481–493CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1981). Search in chess: Age and skill differences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7, 467–476Google Scholar
Charness, N. (1991). Expertise in chess: The balance between knowledge and search. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 39–63). New York: Cambridge University Press
Charness, N., Krampe, R. Th., & Mayr, U. (1996). The role of practice and coaching in entrepreneurial skill domains: An international comparison of life-span chess skill acquisition. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 51–80). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1981). Skilled memory. In J. R. Anderson (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition (pp. 141–189). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1982). Skill and working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 16, pp. 1–58). New York: Academic PressCrossRef
Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). The mind's eye in chess. In W. G. Chase (Ed.), Visual information processing (pp. 215–281). New York: Academic PressCrossRef
Clark, R. W. (1983). Benjamin Franklin: A biography. New York: Random House
(1971). Memory for stimuli and memory for hypotheses in concept identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 89, 102–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowley, M. (Ed.). (1959). Writers at work: The Paris Review interviews. New York: Viking
Dawes, R. M. (1994). House of cards: Psychology and psychotherapy built on myth. New York: Free Press
de Groot, A. D. (1966). Perception and memory versus thought: Some old ideas and recent findings. In B. Kleinmuntz (Ed.), Problem solving: Research, method and theory (pp. 19–50). New York; John Wiley & Sons
de Groot, A. D. (1946/1978). Thought and choice and chess. The Hague: Mouton
Donders, F. C. (1868/1969). On the speed of mental processes. Acta Psychologica, 30, 412–31. (Translated by W. G. Koster from “Over de snelheid can psychishe processen.” Onzoekingen gedann in het Physiologisch Laboratorium der Utrechtsche Hoogeschool, 1868, Tweede reeks, 2, 92–120.)
, & (2000). Skill acquisition in music performance: relations between planning and temporal control. Cognition, 74, 1–32CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1926). A qualitative (experimental and theoretical) study of productive thinking (solving of comprehensible problems). Pedagogical Seminary, 33, 642–708CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K. A. (1988). Analysis of memory performance in terms of memory skill. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of human intelligence (Vol. 4, pp. 137–179). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Ericsson, K. A. (1996). The acquisition of expert performance: An introduction to some of the issues. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 1–50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Ericsson, K. A. (1998a). Commentary on J. R. Anderson's, L. Reder's and H. A. Simon's paper “Radical constructivism, mathematics education and cognitive psychology.” In D. Ravitch (Ed.), Brookings papers on educational policy 1998 (pp. 255–264). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press
(1998b). The scientific study of expert levels of performance: General implications for optimal learning and creativity. High Ability Studies, 9, 75–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1999). Creative expertise as superior reproducible performance: Innovative and flexible aspects of expert performance. Psychological Inquiry, 10(4), 329–333Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A. (2001). Attaining excellence through deliberate practice: Insights from the study of expert performance. In M. Ferrari (Ed.), The pursuit of excellence in education (pp. 21–55). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
, & (1994). Expert performance: Its structure and acquisition. American Psychologist, 49, 725–747CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1991). Introspection and verbal reports on cognitive processes – Two approaches to the study of thought processes: A response to Howe. New Ideas in Psychology, 9, 57–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., & Delaney, P. F. (1999). Long-term working memory as an alternative to capacity models of working memory in everyday skilled performance. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 257–297). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University PressCrossRef
, & (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102, 211–245CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, & (2000). Shortcomings of generic retrieval structures with slots of the type that Gobet (1993) proposed and modeled. British Journal of Psychology, 91, 571–588CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. Th., & Heizmann, S. (1993). Can we create gifted people? In CIBA Foundation Symposium 178, The origin and development of high ability (pp. 222–249). Chichester, UK: Wiley
, , & (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363–406CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1996). Expert and exceptional performance: Evidence on maximal adaptations on task constraints. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 273–305CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericsson, K. A., & Lehmann, A. C. (1999). Expertise. In M. A. Runco & S. Pritzer (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 695–707). San Diego, CA: Academic Press
Ericsson, K. A., & Oliver, W. (1988). Methodology for laboratory research on thinking: Task selection, collection of observation and data analysis. In R. J. Sternberg & E. E. Smith (Eds.), The psychology of human thought (pp. 392–428). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
, , & (2000). How experts' adaptations to representative task demands account for the expertise effect in memory recall: Comment on Vicente and Wang (1998). Psychological Review, 107, 578–592CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1984). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Ericsson, K. A., & Smith, J. (1991). Prospects and limits in the empirical study of expertise: An introduction. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 1–38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ericsson, K. A., & Staszewski, J. (1989). Skilled memory and expertise: Mechanisms of exceptional performance. In D. Klahr & K. Kotovsky (Eds.), Complex information processing: The impact of Herbert A. Simon (pp. 235–267). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Fitts, P., & Posner, M. I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole
Frensch, P. A., & Sternberg, R. J. (1989). Expertise and intelligent thinking: When is it worse to know better? In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of human intelligence (pp. 157–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
, & (1962). A study of the effects of verbalization on problem solving. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, 12–18CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, E. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Gibson, J. J. (1979). An ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin
Glaser, R. (1996). Changing the agency for learning: Acquiring expert performance. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 303–312). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Glaser, R., & Chi, M. T. H. (1988). Overview. In M. T. H. Chi, R. Glaser, & M. J. Farr (Eds.), The nature of expertise (pp. XV–XXVIII). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
, & (1996a). Recall of rapidly presented random chess positions is a function of skill. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 159–163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1996b). The roles of recognition processes and look-ahead search in time-constrained expert problem solving: Evidence from grand-master-level chess. Psychological Science, 7, 52–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1996c). Templates in chess memory: A mechanism for recalling several boards. Cognitive Psychology, 31, 1–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, S. J. (1996). Full house: The spread of excellence from Plato to Darwin. New York: Harmony Books
Greeno, J. G., & Simon, H. A. (1988). Problem solving and reasoning. In R. C. Atkinson, R. J. Herrnstein, G. Lindsey, & R. D. Luce (Eds.), Stevens' handbook of experimental psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 589–672). New: John Wiley
, & (1989). Zweierlei Experten: Problemisten, Partiespieler und Novizen beim Lösen von Schachproblemen [Two types of experts: The solution of chess problems by expert solvers of “chess problems,” expert tournament players, and beginners]. Sprache & Kognition, 8, 72–85Google Scholar
, , & (1998). Team sports and the theory of deliberate practice. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 20, 12–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1996). Wrestling with the nature of expertise: A sport specific test of Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer's (1993) theory of “Deliberate Practice.” International Journal of Sport Psychology, 27, 400–424Google Scholar
(1982). Model of problem solving with incomplete constraint knowledge. Cognitive Psychology, 14, 538–559CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , & (1987). Mnemonic training for the acquisition of skilled digit memory. Cognition and Instruction, 4, 203-223CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koltanowski, G. (1985). In the dark. Coraopolis, PA: Chess Enterprises
, & (1996). Maintaining excellence: Deliberate practice and elite performance in young and older pianists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, 331–359CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehman, H. C. (1953). Age and achievement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
Lehmann, A. C. (1997). Acquisition of expertise in music: Efficiency of deliberate practice as a moderating variable in accounting for sub-expert performance. In I. Deliege & J. A. Sloboda (Eds.), Perception and cognition of music (pp. 165–191). Hillsdale, NJ: LEA
, & (1993). Sight-reading ability of expert pianists in the context of piano accompanying. Psychomusicology, 12, 182–195CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, A. C., & Ericsson, K. A. (1995). Expert pianists' mental representation of memorized music. Poster presented at the 36th Annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Los Angeles, CA, November 10–12
, & (1996). Music performance without preparation: Structure and acquisition of expert sight-reading. Psychomusicology, 15, 1–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, A. C., & Ericsson K. A. (1997). Expert pianists' mental representations: Evidence from successful adaptation to unexpected performance demands. Proceedings of the Third Triennial ESCOM Conference (pp. 165–169). Uppsala, Sweden: SLU Service/Reproenheten
Lehmann, A. C., & Ericsson K. A. (1998). The historical development of domains of expertise: Performance standards and innovations in music. In A. Steptoe (Ed.), Genius and the mind (pp. 67–94). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
Lerner, T. (1915). An audience is the best teacher. In H. Brower (Ed.), Piano mastery: Talks with master pianists and teachers (pp. 38–46). New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company
Levin, H., & Addis, A. B. (1979). The eye-voice span. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Lindworsky, J. (1931). Experimental methodology. New York: Macmillan
Logan, G. D. (1983). Time, information, and the various spans in type writing. In W. E. Cooper (Ed.), Cognitive aspects of skilled typing (pp. 197–224). New York: Springer VerlagCrossRef
(1931). Reasoning in humans: II. The solution of a problem and its appearance in consciousness. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 12, 181–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, C. L. (1894). An introduction to comparative psychology. London: Walter Scott Ltd
, & (1900). Experimentelle Beiträge sur Lehre vom Gedächtniss [Experimental contributions to the theory of memory]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, ErgÅnzungs Band, 1, 1–288Google Scholar
, & (1894). Experimentelle Beiträge zur Untersuchung des Gedächtnisses [Experimental contributions to the study of memory]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 6, 81–190Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1976). Cognition and reality: Principles and implications of cognitive psychology. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company
Newell, A. (1990). Unified theories of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Newell, A., & Rosenbloom, P. S. (1981). Mechanisms of skill acquisition and the law of practice. In J. R. Anderson (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition (pp. 1–55). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Norman, D. A., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1983). Studies of typing from the LNR research group. In W. E. Cooper (Ed.), Cognitive aspects of skilled typing (pp. 45–65). New York: Springer VerlagCrossRef
, , , & (1994). Cognitive differences in clinical reasoning related to postgraduate training. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 6, 114–120CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patel, V. L., & Groen, G. J. (1991). The general and specific nature of medical expertise: A critical look. In K. A. Ericsson & J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise (pp. 93–125). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press
(1976). Task complexity and contingent processing in decision making: An informational search and protocol analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 366–387CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1988). Role of verbal knowledge in chess skill. American Journal of Psychology, 101, 73–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rapaport, D. (Ed.). (1951). Organization and pathology of thought: Selected sources. New York: Columbia University Press
Rosson, M. B. (1985). The role of experience in editing. Proceedings of INTERACT'84 IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 45–50). New York: Elsevier
(1989). Chess players' recall of auditorily presented chess positions. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 1, 309–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1991). Aspects of skilled imagery in blindfold chess. Acta Psychologica, 77, 65–89CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1992). Error in chess: The apperception-restructuring view. Psychological Research, 54, 17–26CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
(1984). Effects of age and skill in typing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 345–371CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, W. (1993). Acquiring expertise: Determinants of exceptional performance. In K. A. Heller, J. Mönks, & H. Passow (Eds.), International handbook of research and development of giftedness and talent (pp. 311–324). Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press
, & (1988). Peak performance and age among superathletes: Track and field, swimming, baseball, tennis, and golf. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 43, 113–120CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaffer, L. H. (1973). Latency mechanisms in transcription. In S. Kornblum (Ed.), Attention and Performance (Vol. 4, pp. 435–446). New York: Academic Press
, & (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127–189CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1975). The functional equivalence of problem solving skills. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 268–288CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, H. A. (1976). The information-storage system called “human memory.” In M. R. Rosenzweig & E. L. Bennett (Eds.), Neural mechanisms of learning and memory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
(1997). Creative productivity: A predictive and explanatory model of career trajectories and landmarks. Psychological Review, 104, 66–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1984). Experimental studies in music reading: A review. Music Perception, 22, 222–236CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sloboda, J. A. (1996). The acquisition of musical performance expertise: Deconstructing the “talent” account of individual differences in musical expressivity. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 107–126). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
, , , & (1998). Determinants of finger choice in piano sight-reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 24, 185–203Google Scholar
(1972). Probabilistic forecasting: An experiment related to the stock market. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 8, 139–158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starkes, J. L., & Deakin, J. (1984). Perception in sport: A cognitive approach to skilled performance. In W. F. Straub & J. M. Williams (Eds.), Cognitive sport psychology (pp. 115–128). Lansing, NY: Sport Science Associates
Starkes, J. L., Deakin, J., Allard, F., Hodges, N. J., & Hayes, A. (1996). Deliberate practice in sports: What is it anyway? In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 81–106). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
Sternberg, R. J. (1977). Intelligence, information processing, and analogical reasoning: The componential analysis of human abilities. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Sternberg. R. J. (1996). Costs of expertise. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 347–354). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum
(1979). Process descriptions of decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 23, 86–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1991). Rule acquisition events in the discovery of problem-solving strategies. Cognitive Science, 15, 1–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1935). The development of Alfred Binet's psychology. Psychological Monographs, 46 (Whole No. 207)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158–177CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1920). Is thinking merely the action of language mechanisms? British Journal of Psychology, 11, 87–104Google Scholar
(1924). The place of kinesthetic, visceral and laryngeal organization in thinking. Psychological Review, 31, 339–347CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, & (1995). On the acquisition of mnemonic skill: Application of skilled memory theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1, 194–215Google Scholar
Woody, R. H., Lehmann, A. C., & Ericsson, K. A. (1998). Evidence for mental representations mediating expert musicians' expressive performance. Presentation given at the 39th Annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Dallas, TX, November 19–22
- 43
- Cited by