Thinking, reasoning and planning that mediate problem solving, learning and skilled performance. The structure of cognitive processes and attention revealed by the analysis of think-aloud protocols and retrospective verbal reports. The acquisition of expert performance through deliberate practice in domains, such as music, science, golf and darts. The structure and acquisition of Long-Term Working Memory.
Publications
Four Major Research Areas The Acquisition of Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice
Ever since the conference that Jacqui Smith and I organized in West Berlin (Ericsson & Smith, 1991) I have collaborated with several colleagues on the task of describing the structure and acquisition of expert performance. My work with Ralph Krampe and Clemens Tesch-Romer (Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Romer, 1993) on the acquisition of very high levels of music performance with expert violinists at the Berlin Music Academy, documented the effects of deliberate practice and outlined evidence on the mediating mechanisms. For a brief summary and description of the Acquisition of Expert Performance and how this is explained by Deliberate Practice <click here>. See also the new section on Professional Development.
Most recent publications on this topic
Feltovich, P. J., Prietula, M. J, & Ericsson, K. A. (2006). Studies of expertise from psychological perspectives. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. Feltovich, and R. R. Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.). Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 39-68). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). Protocol analysis and expert thought: Concurrent verbalizations of thinking during experts' performance on representative task. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. Feltovich, and R. R. Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.). Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 223-242). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. Feltovich, and R. R. Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.). Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 685-706). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Law, M., Côté, J., & Ericsson, K. A. (2007). Characteristics of expert development in rhythmic gymnastics: A retrospective study. International Journal of Exercise and Sport Psychology, 5, 82-103.
Ericsson, K. A. (2007). Deliberate practice and the modifiability of body and mind: Toward a science of the structure and acquisition of expert and elite performance. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 38, 4-34.
Ericsson, K. A., & Ward, P. (2007). Capturing the naturally occurring superior performance of experts in the laboratory: Toward a science of expert and exceptional performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 346-350.
Williams, A. M., & Ericsson, K. A. (2008). How do experts learn? Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 30, 1-11.
Ericsson, K. A., Nandagopal, K., & Roring, R. W. (2009). Toward a science of exceptional achievement: Attaining superior performance through deliberate practice. Annals of New York Academy of Science, 1172, 199-217.
Ericsson, K. A., Nandagopal, K., & Roring, R. W. (2009). An expert-performance approach to the study of giftedness. In L. Shavinina (Ed.), International handbook of giftedness (pp. 129-153). Berlin, Germany: Springer Science + Business Media .
Ericsson, K. A. (2009). The scientific study of expert levels of performance can guide training for producing superior achievement in creative domains. In Proceedings from International conference on the cultivation and education of creativity and innovation (pp. 5-27). Beijing, China: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Ericsson, K. A. (2009). Discovering deliberate practice activities that overcome plateaus and limits on improvement of performance. In A. Willamon, S. Pretty, & R. Buck (Eds.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science 2009 (pp. 11-21). Utrecht, The Netherlands: Association Europienne des Conservatoires Academies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC).
Relevant basic publications
Ericsson, K. A. (1996). The acquisition of expert performance: An introduction to some of the issues. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The road to excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports, and games (pp. 1-50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ericsson, K. A. (1999). Creative expertise as superior reproducible performance: Innovative and flexible aspects of expert performance. Psychological Inquiry, 10(4), 329-333.
Ericsson, K. A. (2000). How experts attain and maintain superior performance: Implications for the enhancement of skilled performance in older individuals. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 8, 346-352.
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). The development of elite performance and deliberate practice: An update from the perspective of the expert-performance approach. In J. Starkes and K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in sport: Recent advances in research on sport expertise (pp. 49-81). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). How the expert-performance approach differs from traditional approaches to expertise in sports: In search of a shared theoretical framework for studying expert performance. In J. Starkes and K. A. Ericsson (Eds.), Expert performance in sport: Recent advances in research on sport expertise (pp. 371-401). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). The acquisition of expert performance as problem solving: Construction and modification of mediating mechanisms through deliberate practice. In J. E. Davidson and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Problem solving (pp. 31-83). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). The search for general abilities and basic capacities: Theoretical implications from the modifiability and complexity of mechanisms mediating expert performance. In R. J. Sternberg and E. L. Grigorenko (Eds.), Perspectives on the psychology of abilities, competencies, and expertise (pp. 93-125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duffy, L. J., Baluch, B., & Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Dart performance as a function of facets of practice amongst professional and amateur men and women players. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 35, 232-245
Ericsson, K. A., & Charness, N. (1994). Expert performance: Its structure and acquisition. American Psychologist, 49(8), 725-747.
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. Th., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406.
Ericsson, K. A., & Lehmann, A. C. (1996). Expert and exceptional performance: Evidence of maximal adaptations to task constraints. Annual Review of Psychology, 47. 273-305.
Ericsson, K. A., & Smith, J. (1991). Prospects and limits in the empirical study of expertise: An introduction. In K. A. Ericsson and J. Smith (Eds.), Toward a general theory of expertise: Prospects and limits (pp. 1-38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krampe, R. Th., & Ericsson, K. A. (1996). Maintaining excellence: Deliberate practice and elite performance in young and older pianists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, 331-359.
Lehmann, A. C., & Ericsson K. A. (1998). The historical development of domains of expertise: Performance standards and innovations in music. In A. Steptoe (Ed.), Genius and the mind (pp. 67-94). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press
Professional Development
Over time the work on deliberate practice has been geared toward application in established domains of expertise, such as medicine, nursing, and surgery..
Most recent publications on the topic
Ericsson, K. A., Whyte, J., & Ward, P. (2007). Expert performance in nursing: Reviewing research on expertise in nursing within the framework of the expert-performance approach. Advances in Nursing Science, 30, E58-E71.
Ericsson, K. A. (2007). An expert-performance perspective on medical expertise: Study superior clinical performance rather than experienced clinicians! Medical Education, 41, 1124-30
Bond, W., Kuhn, G., Binstadt E., Quirk, M., Wu, T., Tews, M., Dev P., & Ericsson, K. A. (2008). The use of simulation in the development of individual cognitive expertise in emergency medicine.Academic Emergency Medicine, 15(11), 1037-45.
Ericsson, K. A. (2008). Deliberate practice and acquisition of expert performance: A general overview.Academic Emergency Medicine. 15(11), 988-994.
Ericsson, K. A., Perez, R., Eccles, D. W., Lang, L., Baker, E., Bransford, J., VanLehn, K., & Ward, P. (2009). The Measurement and Development of Professional Performance: An Introduction to the Topic and the Organization of this Book. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments (pp. 1-24). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (2009). Enhancing the development of professional performance: Implications from the study of deliberate practice. In K. A. Ericsson (Ed.), The development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments (pp. 405-431). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Relevant basic publications
Ericsson, K. A. (2000/2001). Expertise in interpreting: An expert-performance perspective. Interpreting, 5(2), 187-220.
Ericsson, K.A. (2001). The path to expert golf performance: Insights from the masters on how to improve performance by deliberate practice. In P. R. Thomas (Ed.), Optimising performance in golf (pp. 1-57). Brisbane, Australia: Australian Academic Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (2002). Attaining excellence through deliberate practice: Insights from the study of expert performance. In M. Ferrari (Ed.), The pursuit of excellence in education (pp. 21-55). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related domains. Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81.
Superior Memory of Experts and Long-Term Working Memory (LTWM)
Since my work with Bill Chase on skilled memory (Chase & Ericsson, 1981, 1982, Ericsson, Chase & Faloon, 1980) I have been collaborating with several colleagues on developing a theory that can account for experts’ ability to expand working memory and access to long-term memory with training. For a brief summary and description of the Superior Memory of Experts and how this is explained by Long-Term Working Memory <click here>.
Most recent publications on the topic
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102(2), 211-245.
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). Exceptional memorizers: made, not born. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(6), 233-235.
Ericsson, K. A., Delaney, P. F., Weaver, G., & Mahadevan, R. (2004). Uncovering the structure of a memorist's superior “basic” memory capacity. Cognitive Psychology, 49, 191-237.
Delaney, P. F., Ericsson, K. A., & Knowles, M. E. (2004). Immediate and sustained effects of planning in a problem-solving task. Journal of Experimental Psychology; Learning, Memory and Cognition, 30, 1219-1234.
Schraw, G., & Ericsson, K. A. (2005). An interview with K. Anders Ericsson. Educational Psychology Review 17, 389-412.
Hu, Y., Ericsson, K. A., Yang, D., & Lu, C. (2009). Superior self-paced memorization of digits in spite of a normal digit span: The structure of a memorist's skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 35, 1426-42.
Relevant basic publications
Ericsson, K. A., Chase, W. G., & Faloon, S. (1980). Acquisition of a memory skill. Science, 208, 1181-1182.
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1981). Skilled memory. In J. R. Anderson (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition (pp. 141-189). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1982). Skill and working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), the psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 16 (pp. 1-58). New York: Academic Press.
Ericsson, K. A. (1985). Memory skill. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 39(2), 188-231.
Ericsson, K. A., Patel, V. L., & Kintsch, W. (2000). How experts' adaptations to representative task demands account for the expertise effect in memory recall: Comment on Vicente and Wang (1998). Psychological Review, 107, 578-592.
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (2000). Shortcomings of generic retrieval structures with slots of the type that Gobet (1993) proposed and modeled. British Journal of Psychology, 91, 571-588.
Ericsson, K. A., & Delaney, P. F. (1999). Long-term working memory as an alternative to capacity models of working memory in everyday skilled performance. In A. Miyake and P. Shah (Eds.), Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control (pp. 257-297), Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Protocol Analysis and Verbal Reports on Thinking
Ever since my work with Herbert Simon (Ericsson & Simon, 1980, 1984) I have collaborated with colleagues to develop Protocol analysis into a rigorous methodology for eliciting verbal reports of thought sequences as a valid source of data on thinking. For a brief summary and description of protocol analysis <click here>.
Most recent publications on the topic
Ericsson, K. A. (2003). Valid and non-reactive verbalization of thoughts during performance of tasks: Toward a solution to the central problems of introspection as a source of scientific data. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10(9-10), 1-18 .
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). Protocol analysis and expert thought: Concurrent verbalizations of thinking during experts' performance on representative task. In K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. Feltovich, and R. R. Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.). Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (pp. 223-242). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Relevant basic publications
Ericsson, K. A. (1988). Concurrent verbal reports on reading and text comprehension. Text, 8(4), 295-325.
Ericsson, K. A., & Crutcher, R. J. (1991). Introspection and verbal reports on cognitive processes - two approaches to the study of thought processes: A response to Howe. New Ideas in Psychology, 9, 57-71.
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis; Verbal reports as data (revised edition). Cambridge, MA: Bradfordbooks/MIT Press.
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1998). How to study thinking in everyday life: Contrasting think-aloud protocols with descriptions and explanations of thinking. Mind, Culture, & Activity, 5(3), 178-186.
Ericsson, K. A. (2001). Protocol analysis in psychology. In N. Smelser and P. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (pp. 12256-12262). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Ericsson, K. A. (2002). Toward a procedure for eliciting verbal expression of nonverbal experience without reactivity: Interpreting the verbal overshadowing effect within the theoretical framework for protocol analysis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16, 981-987.
Crutcher, R. J., Ericsson, K. A., & Wichura, C. A. (1994). Improving the encoding of verbal reports using MPAS: A computer-aided encoding system. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 26(2), 167-171.
Crutcher, R. J., & Ericsson, K. A. (2000). The role of mediators in memory retrieval as a function of practice: Controlled mediation to direct access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1297-1317.
