Lecture 9 - Your Questions and Concerns About Ericsson's Theory Flashcards
opjuy747Disproving ‘the sports gene’ theory
“I started reading Peak last week and
I think the ideas presented are very
interesting. I was telling one of my
friends about it, when my other friend
overheard. He’s an athlete and he
insisted that not everyone could
become a great athlete. He said he
could understand the argument if it
was regarding something like music,
but that he didn’t think that everyone
had what it took to become an expert
athlete. He said there were too many
physical factors, like height, genetics
and lactic acid capacities. “
Most of these “physical differences” are The result of endurance training!!
The physical advantages we see in athletes are the result of training
Fast and slow (twitches? Switches? Idk what he said) respond to training
Cameleon-like peripheral vision?
I learned in another class that the components of
expertise include natural physical configuration
in the case of athletes. For example, Wayne
Gretzky has slightly protruding “chameleon”
eyes which enable him to see what is happening
all over the hockey rink.
No. If assess peripheral vision, normal. But in the context of hockey with specific stimulus yes would do better than the average person.
Like chess players and hockey players… do have amazing skills in their domain in reaction to specific stimuli… but in other contexts they are just normal
Other physical advantages?
Micheal Phelps, Andy Roddick, Katrina LeMay Doan:
-Swimmer guy (Michael Phelps)… advantage because double jointed? No, if anything worse. Weirdly long upper body and shorter legs advantage? No, the opposite. All the result of training. Maybe because of these disadvantages, he had to train even harder, leading to his skills
-Andy Roddick: Tennis players arched back… result of flexibility and strength training in tennis which helps back arch without injury… so helps him out. Result of training, not ‘natural more arched back’
-,Katrina LeMay Doan: Same with speed skater’s big thigh muscles… result of training
Mechanisms that mediate expert performance?
Ericsson 2007
“Distinctive physiological characteristics of experts…are accurately characterized as physiological adaptations to extended periods of intense training”
“Cognitive mechanisms responsible for the acquisition of expert performance involve complex acquired representations which facilitate expert’s ability to plan, monitor, and reason about their performance.” (e.g., returning tennis serve)
Problem in testing Ericsson’s theory:
Cannot do a randomized controlled study where kids at young ages are assigned to extensive deliberate practice during critical developmental periods.
But can we do case study experiments?
Prof’s daughter
Was bad at hand eye coordination when young, but prof threw balls at her and she got way better at catching them and became the best in her class after a few years
Deliberate practice pays off
Sergei Polunin, the ballet dancer
Started at 3, mom who had a vision
From Kiev where ballet valued
Dad a gymnast
Coaches, advanced training…
exposure,
modeling,
Parental valuing
purposeful practice
Wunderkind phenomenon
Follow-up Music Question
Doesn’t talent show itself by how quickly someone responds to instruction?
Objections to E & C: Gardner’s response 1995 “As one who has taught and observed piano lessons for over 40 years, I have no hesitation in stating that students differ enormously from one another in the skill and ease with which they can sight read, master, remember and interpret pieces. I wonder if Ericsson and Charness truly doubt this state of affairs?” IE: It requires deliberate practice plus some innate skill to become an expert in a given domain. How can you not see that??
Ericsson and Charness’ (1995) response: “We prefer to attribute the development of even such prerequisite abilities to extensive prior experience and relevant training… Consistent with this argument, Suzuki teachers who work with very young children do not believe in innate music talent. They attribute motivation for practice to improvements in performance, which in turn are a direct result of carefully designed practice activities that assure success.”
Elaine Winner (2000)Article:
Premier expert on giftedness in school.
Seeks to contradict E & C theory that expert
performance has nothing to do with innate talent.
Evidence of Atypical Brain
Organization Among Gifted in
Math and Music.
1. Non-right-handedness.
2. More bi-lateral brain organization
Ex: London Taxi Drivers
Jugglers,
Memory Experts
“There are simply too
many achievements of
early prodigies to be
discounted and they
are too consistent….
I find it very hard to believe that there is no innate component
to expertise – I feel that there must be SOMETHING within you
that makes you better than others – NO amount of practice
would make me a math expert because it is not something that
I am naturally good at. Don’t you have to show some passion
for the task? Isn’t that innate? (I know people who would be
more “expert” than me at math with significantly less practice).
BUT!!!
Your brain changes too! If you do a loot of math, your brain will change. So people might look at the brain of math geniuses and be like “their brain is different, that must be why they are so good at math”! But no! Their brain changed BECAUSE of doing so much math
Same thing with the memory of taxi drivers in New York
Ericsson’s response: there are barriers that impact others from developing these skills
Barriers:
early exposure
exposure during critical developmental period
keen interest in the domain (genetic?)
insufficient self-regulatory skill to maintain
practice regimen, (genetic?)
financial resources
lack of top-level of instruction,
demotivating instruction at critical time
excessive practice leading to injury and burnout
So there are a lot of factors at play! Not a question of natural ability!
Usually parents push them, quit their job to spend all their time training their kid, have the money to… there is a lot of privilege involved
If Ericsson is correct…
Our focus should be on what represents
effective deliberate practice in a field.
Psychotherapist
Chess Player
Scrabble Player
Professor
There are specific techniques to learn certain skills
Ex: learning to be good at scrabble
Steps
1.Learn the two-letter words. …
2.Know common prefixes and suffixes, such as -ED, -ING, -UN, -RE and so on. …
3.Use blanks and S’s effectively. …
4.Try to arrange your letters for a Bingo. …
5.Learn the words with a Q in them, but no U, such as QI, QAID, QAT, etc.
6.Don’t hesitate to swap some tiles if you’re in a tough situation.
7.Cheat when you mark your score down. lol
Only lexical decision is required!
Scrabble depends on deliberate practice!!!
Comments by Ericsson (2007)
on genetic factors:
“Intense and sustained training activity produces
biochemical side products that trigger the activation
of dormant genes in the athletes DNA which in turn
initiate anatomical changes..”
“Healthy children appear to have the prerequisite
genes as part of their DNA but few engage in the
type, intensity, and duration of required practice that
would achieve the desired adaptation.”
