Practice and Expertise

1. Practice and Expertise K. Anders Ericsson Florida State University

2. Expert’s Intuition • Expertise is accomplished via motivation, concentration, and willingness to work (through deliberate practice) • Innate talent is relatively unimportant when compared to their attained abilities and skills • There is no objective evidence for high initial level of performance without any relevant experience and practice nor abrupt improvement of reproducible performance when regularly tested (Ericsson, p. 25)

3. Anecdotes vs. Scientific Study • Recall Phrenology vs. Modularity of brain function • Many earlier descriptions of expertise were anecdotal from experts at the conclusion of their career • What we want is verifiable and reproducible evidence under controlled circumstance

4. Are experts really experts?

6. Experts: Execution at Will • Novice Chess placement • Will select most appropriate move (with less variability) • Typing • One minute reproduction of novel transcription will exhibit less error • Music Performance • Reproduction of same piece on multiple occasions will exhibit less variability

7. Can we agree that experience will help? However, • Even child prodigies’ improve with practice • Improvement goes beyond period of peak physical maturity • True across diverse skill domains What sort of experience is most important: Deliberate Practice

9. Deliberate Practice: Characteristics • Limited periods, high in concentration • Approximately one hour/session • Usually no more than 4-5 hrs/day • Often in the morning • Same amount each day • Additional rest often in the afternoon

10. What happens during deliberate practice: • Physiological changes • Cardiovascular • Neuromuscular • Skeletal • Cortical changes • Practice-dependent plasticity

11. Time Course of Deliberate Practice

12. Why remain in non-automated mode? • Exhibit flexibility • Long-term memory for performance and errors

13. Chess (de Groot, 1978) • Think aloud protocols • Elaborate evaluations of many moves to reduce error

14. Typing: Levin & Addis (1979) • Reading ahead of what is being typed (anticipatory processes)

15. Music: Lehmann & Ericsson (1995) • Pieces can be played: • Different tempo • Playing every other measure • Playing notes with one hand

17. Power Law of Practice • The power law of practice is a very general law in human cognition, and in particular in human learning. The higher the level of expertise and the time spent on the task, the more difficult it is to improve (principle of diminishing returns). • Previous graphs reveal a typical example of data showing a power law (first graph). An interesting feature of the power law is that , when data are plotted by taking their logarithms, they are well fitted by a straight line. (second graph).

18. Change in RT with practice

19. Change in RT with practice

20. Changing neural contributions during learning: Explicit • Early: Acquisition • Bi-lateral in nature* • Posterior • BG: striatum (putamen) • Cerebellump • Hippocampus • DLPFC

21. Changing neural contributions during learning: Explicit • Late: Recall • Unilateral, Contralateral* (M1) • Anterior • BG: striatum (putamen) • M1 • Premotor • Superior Parietal regions

22. Neural Correlates of Motor Consolidation Shadmehr & Holcomb (1997) Nature, 277, 821-825

23. vs. Shadmehr & Holcomb (1997) Nature, 277, 821-825

24. Left Sensorimotor Cortex During Early Learning Right Prefrontal Cortex

25. Posterior Parietal L Dorsal PMC L Ant. Cerebellar R Note: Reduction in rCBF to prefrontal cortex

26. Practice Extent is important: What about Practice Structure? • Practice Composition • Practice Variability • Mental Practice • Observational Practice • Part vs. Whole Practice • Practice Scheduling • Practice Distribution (i.e., Consolidation) • Contextual Interference

27. Practice Variability vs. Specificity Group Acquisition Retention Transfer Specific c c c c cccccccc ddddd Variable cabcbacabc cccccccc ddddd

28. Variability vs. Specificity: Retention

29. More practice? Group Acquisition Retention Transfer Specific c c c c cccccccc ddddd Variable cabcbacabc cccccccc ddddd Specific-Specific ccccccccccc ccccccccd ddddd

30. Variability vs. Specificity: Retention

31. Practice Distribution: Using Time • How to best use 60 hours of training to maximize performance and learning? (e.g., 2-a-days) 2 Session 1 Session 1 hour 12 weeks 6 weeks 6 weeks 3 weeks 2 hour

32. Baddeley & Longman (1978)

33. Correct # of Keystrokes as a function of practice distribution

34. Structuring Variability: Contextual Interference ACQRETTRAN Specific AAAAAAAA A E BBBBBBBBB B E CCCCCCCCC C E Blocked AAABBBCCC ABC E Random ABCBCACAB ABC E Where is greatest variability? Why?

35. Immink & Wright (1998)

36. Why does this occur? • Forgetting-Reconstruction position (Lee & Magill, 1983;1985) • Initially greater attention but is eventually controlled (resources issue) • Memory search processes are extensive (search and retrieval) • Restructuring of information (encoding and organization) • less reliant on training context (search processes) • Elaboration position (Shea & Zimny, 1983; 1988) • Superior production of response (memory richness and associations) Parts of both are important (Immink & Wright, 1998; 2001)

37. Cross, Schmitt, & Grafton (in press)

38. Cross, Schmitt, & Grafton (in press) Prim. SMCL Sup. PC (motor Attention)

39. Practice Extent and Structure are important • Expertise • Practice Composition • Practice Scheduling