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>.
Most recent publications on this
topic
Ericsson, K. A. (2005). Recent advances in expertise research: A commentary
on the contributions to the special issue. Applied Cognitive Psychology,
19, 233-241.
Plant, E. A., Ericsson, K. A., Hill, L., & Asberg, K. (2005). Why study
time does not predict grade point average across college students: Implications
of deliberate practice for academic performance. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 30, 96-116.
Van Gog, T., Ericsson, K. A., Rikers, R. M. J. P., & Paas, F. (2005). Instructional
design for advanced learners: Establishing connections between the theoretical
frameworks of cognitive load and deliberate practice. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 53, 73-81.
Côté, J., Ericsson , K. A. & Law, M. (2005). Tracing the development of
athletes using retrospective interview methods: A proposed interview and validation
procedure for reported information. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,
17, 1-19.
Williams, A. M., & Ericsson, K. A. (2005). Perceptual-cognitive expertise
in sport: Some considerations when applying the expert performance approach.
Human Movement Science, 24, 283-307.
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
UniversityPress.
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
UniversityPress.
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
UniversityPress.
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.
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. (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, 109-123.
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. (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.), Optimizing 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. (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
UniversityPress.
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
UniversityPress.
Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance
of expert performance in medicine and related domains. Academic Medicine, 79, S70-S81.
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
UniversityPress.
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
UniversityPress
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.
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:
LawrenceErlbaum 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., & 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
UniversityPress.
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.
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
UniversityPress.
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.
