Document Detail


Deliberate practice is necessary but not sufficient to explain individual differences in piano sight-reading skill: the role of working memory capacity.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20534780     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Deliberate practice-that is, engagement in activities specifically designed to improve performance in a domain-is strongly predictive of performance in domains such as music and sports. It has even been suggested that deliberate practice is sufficient to account for expert performance. Less clear is whether basic abilities, such as working memory capacity (WMC), add to the prediction of expert performance, above and beyond deliberate practice. In evaluating participants having a wide range of piano-playing skill (novice to expert), we found that deliberate practice accounted for nearly half of the total variance in piano sight-reading performance. However, there was an incremental positive effect of WMC, and there was no evidence that deliberate practice reduced this effect. Evidence indicates that WMC is highly general, stable, and heritable, and thus our results call into question the view that expert performance is solely a reflection of deliberate practice.
Authors:
Elizabeth J Meinz; David Z Hambrick
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't     Date:  2010-06-09
Journal Detail:
Title:  Psychological science     Volume:  21     ISSN:  1467-9280     ISO Abbreviation:  Psychol Sci     Publication Date:  2010 Jul 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-07-09     Completed Date:  2010-11-02     Revised Date:  2011-05-20    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9007542     Medline TA:  Psychol Sci     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  914-9     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Box 1121, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1121, USA. emeinz@siue.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Female
Humans
Individuality*
Male
Memory, Short-Term / physiology*
Middle Aged
Music / psychology*
Practice (Psychology)*
Psychomotor Performance / physiology*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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