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Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts The Acquisition of Expert Performance: K. Anders Ericsson It is commonly believed that the study of the structure of elite and expert performance would uncover innate abilities and characteristics of exceptional individuals rather than lawful findings that generalize to the general population. However, recent research in many different domains of expertise shows that the large differences in performance between experts and novices--the largest reproducible differences in performance recorded for healthy adults--are predominantly mediated by acquired complex skills and physiological adaptations due to high daily levels of deliberate practice sustained for a decade or longer. The effects of extended deliberate practice are more far-reaching than is commonly believed and include qualitative changes in performance mediated by acquired skills circumventing basic limits on working memory capacity and sequential processing as well as anatomical changes due to physiological adaptations to intense physical activity. The study of the acquisition and structure of elite performance is shown to be uniquely suited to address fundamental issues concerning optimal learning and the potential and limits of human adaptation and acquired performance.
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