Deliberate Practice –is 10,000 hours enough?€¦ · The 10,000 hours idea Dan McLaughlin, aiming to become pro-golfer through 10,000 hours of deliberate practice – following

DeliberatePractice– is10,000hoursenough?

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The10,000hoursidea

DanMcLaughlin,aimingtobecomepro-golferthrough10,000hoursofdeliberatepractice–followingideaofProfAndersEricssonofFloridaStateUniversity– authorofPeak:SecretsFromtheNewScienceofExpertise(2016).Lastposting– April2015– handicap=5.5Image- http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2015/06/06/dan-mclaughlin-plan-malcolm-gladwell

DeliberatePractice

“…professionalexpertisehasbeenjudgedbylengthofexperience,reputation,andperceivedmasteryofknowledgeandskill.Unfortunately,recentresearchdemonstratesonlyaweakrelationshipbetweentheseindicatorsofexpertiseandactual,observedperformance.Infact,observedperformancedoesnotnecessarilycorrelatewithgreaterprofessionalexperience.Expertperformancecan,however,betracedtoactiveengagementindeliberatepractice(DP),wheretraining(oftendesignedandarrangedbytheirteachersandcoaches)isfocusedonimprovingparticulartasks.DPalsoinvolvestheprovisionofimmediatefeedback,timeforproblem-solvingandevaluation,andopportunitiesforrepeatedperformancetorefinebehavior.”Eriksson(2008)http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/18778378

SomepointsfromEricsson’sbook–

• DPisnoteasy– itis“outofthecomfortzone”• Ifyouareplateauing– not“tryharder”,but“trydifferently”– forexamplememorisingrandom

digits– togetbeyond7-8,needtoemploymentalstructures– memorisingaschunksofaround3digits– Under-gradSteveFaloon learnedtorecall82digits(Ericsson,K.A.,Delaney,P.F.,Weaver,G.,&Mahadevan,R.(2004).Uncoveringthestructureofamemorist's superior"basic"memorycapacity.CognitivePsychology,49,191-237)

• Motivationiskey– forexamplemeaningfulpositivefeedbackandpowerfulspecificgoals

MentalRepresentations

AlexanderAlekhine,in1924completed26simultaneouschessgames– blindfolded.Expertsbuildupmentalrepresentationsoftheirarea– forexamplechessgrandmasterscanvisualise games,seeoverallpatterns,zoominandreviewoptionsfordifferentmoves.

ResearchbyHerbSimonindicatesthatchessgrandmastersseepatternsonthechessboardratherthanrememberingwhereeachindividualpieceispositioned– resultingininahierarchicalarrangementofaround50,000“chunks”ofsuchchesspatterns.(Thoughrecentresearchsuggestsfewerchunksinshort-termmemory,whichincludeupto15items– forMasters- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658210344000530?src=recsys)

Expertperformanceislikelytorestonmemory-basedexpertise– usedtorespondquicklyandeffectivelyinrelevantsituations.Forexamplebetterfootballplayerspredictedthenextmoveswhengamevideostopped,andbetterabletorememberplayerpositionsandactions- http://axonpotential.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/2003-Ward-Williams-JSEP.pdfImage:https://en.chessbase.com/post/kavalek-in-huffington-alekhine-and-the-art-of-che-160513

Memory

Londoncabdriversstudyfor3-4yearstolearnTheKnowledge– thestreets,buildingsandroutesofcentralLondon.Thosewhosucceedinpassing– comparedtounsuccessfulcandidates,andtootheradults– growtheir(posterior)hippocampus–memorycentralofthebrain– theadultbraingrowsandchangesinresponsetochallenges

But– thelicenced taxidrivers(whohadacquiredTheKnowledge)didbetteronatestofLondonlandmarks,andworseonastandardspatialmemorytest– comparedtothecontrols.Theremaybeacosttoacquiringsuchknowledge.

(KatherineWoollett andEleanorMaguire,2011- http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(11)01267-X?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS096098221101267X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)

Image:https://blackcabheritagetours.co.uk/aboutus/london-taxis/

Expertise

Stringplayershavebiggerrepresentationofthefingersoftheleft(the“fingeringhand”)inthebrain,andtheregionofthebrainthatusuallymanagestheleftpalmisalsorecruitedbythefingers.Theearlierthemusicianstartslearning– thegreatertheexpansionofthezonethatcontrolstheleftfingers– ThomasElbertandothers(1995)- http://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/10711/Elbert_1995_Increased_Cortical_Representation.pdf?sequence=1

Image:ChloeMoretz playsIfIStay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXinIav-BeU

Criticalperiods?

“Perfectpitch”– theabilitytoidentifyindividualmusicalnotes– asdemonstratedbyMozartandotherrareprodigies– canbetaught.Childrenaged2-6hadfiveshorttrainingsessionseachdaytoidentify14chords.All22whocompletedthetrainingwereabletoidentifyuniquenotes- AyakoSakakibara,2014- http://pom.sagepub.com/content/42/1/86.short

Image:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samantha-rodman-phd/my-husband-and-i-fight-ov_b_9064848.html

IsDeliberatePracticetheway?A2014“meta-analysis”(88studiesincluding11,000participants)– differenceattributabletoDP:

26%games21%music18%sports4%education<1%professions

Practiceis“important,butnotthatimportant”;peoplemayrequirevastlydifferentamountsofdeliberatepracticetoreachthesamelevelofskill.- BrookeMacnamara andcolleagues(2014)- http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-

content/uploads/2014/07/Macnamara-et-al.-2014.pdf

Whilepracticeiscorrelatedwithexpertise,itmaybethatthemotivationtopracticeisinherited– “it’smorelikelytofindapairofidenticaltwinswhohavebothaccumulatedover10,000hoursofpracticethanapairoffraternaltwinswhohavebothaccumulatedthisamountofpractice … whileextensivepracticeisnecessarytobecomeahighlyskilledmusician,geneticfactorsinfluenceourwillingnesstoputinthatpractice.Moregenerally,thisresearchsuggeststhatwegravitatetowardandpersistatthoseactivitiesthatwehaveanaptitudeforfromtheoutset.”

MiriamMosing andcolleagues(2014)-http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/30/0956797614541990.abstract