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Deliberate Practice and the Acquisition and Maintenance of Expert Performance in Medicine and Related Domains
K. ANDERS ERICSSON
The factors that cause large individual differences in professional tantly, he argued that similar innate mechanisms must determine
achievement are only partially understood. Nobody becomes an mental capacities, stating:
outstanding professional without experience, but extensive experi-
ence does not invariably lead people to become experts. When Now, if this be the case with stature, then it will be true too
individuals are first introduced to a professional domain after com- as regards every other physical featureas circumference of
pleting their education, they are often overwhelmed and rely on head, size of brain, weight of grey matter, number of brain
help from others to accomplish their responsibilities. After months fibres, &c.; and thence, a step on which no physiologist will
or years of experience, they attain an acceptable level of proficiency
hesitate, as regards mental capacity italics added.1, pp. 312
and are able to work independently. Although everyone in a given
domain tends to improve with experience initially, some develop
faster than others and continue to improve during ensuing years. At the same time, Galton clearly acknowledged the effects of
These individuals are eventually recognized as experts and masters. practice and the need for training to reach high levels of perfor-
In contrast, most professionals reach a stable, average level of mance in any domain. However, he argued that improvements are
performance within a relatively short time frame and maintain this rapid only in the beginning of training and that subsequent in-
mediocre status for the rest of their careers. The nature of the creases become increasingly smaller, until Maximal performance
individual differences that cause the large variability in attained becomes a rigidly determinate quantity.1, p. 15 According to
performance is still debated. The most common explanation is that Galton, the relevant heritable capacities set the upper bound for an
achievement in a given domain is limited by innate factors that individuals physical and mental achievements, and once all of the
cannot be changed through experience and training; hence, limits training benefits have been attained through sufficient practice,
of attainable performance are determined by ones basic endow- then the immutable limit for performance is reached that Nature
ments, such as abilities, mental capacities, and innate talents. has rendered him capable of performing.1, p. 16 According to
Educators with this widely held view of professional development Galton, the immutable characteristics that limit maximal perfor-
have focused on identifying and selecting students who possess the mance cannot be altered through training. By extension, they must
necessary innate talents that would allow them to reach expert have been innately endowed. Galtons arguments for the impor-
levels with adequate experience. Therefore, the best schools and tance of innate factors in elite performance were quite compelling
professional organizations nearly always rely on extensive testing and, thus, have had a lasting impact on our cultures view of ability
and interviews to find the most talented applicants. This general and expertise.
view also explains age-related declines in professional achievement Contemporary theories of skill acquisition2,3 are consistent with
in terms of the inevitable reductions in general abilities and capac- Galtons general assumptions and with the observations on the
ities believed to result from aging. course of professional development. When individuals are first
In this article, I propose an alternative framework to account for introduced to an activity such as driving a car or playing golf, their
individual differences in attained professional development, as well primary goal is to reach a level of mastery that will allow them to
as many aspects of age-related decline. This framework is based on perform everyday tasks at an acceptable level or to engage profi-
the assumption that acquisition of expert performance requires ciently in recreational activities with their friends. During the first
engagement in deliberate practice and that continued deliberate phase of learning,2 novices try to understand the activity and
practice is necessary for maintenance of many types of professional concentrate on avoiding mistakes. With more experience in the
performance. In order to contrast this alternative framework with the middle phase of learning, gross mistakes become increasingly rare,
traditional view, I first describe the account based on innate talent. I performance appears smoother, and learners no longer need to
then provide a brief review of the evidence on deliberate practice in concentrate as hard to perform at an acceptable level. After a
the acquisition of expert performance in several performance domains, limited period of training and experiencefrequently less than 50
including music, chess, and sports. Finally, I review evidence from the hours for most recreational activities such as typing, playing tennis,
acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and and driving a caran acceptable standard of performance is typi-
examine the role of deliberate practice in this domain. cally attained. As individuals adapt to a domain and their perfor-
mance skills become automated, they are able to execute these skills
smoothly and without apparent effort. As a consequence of auto-
The Traditional View of Skill Acquisition and Professional mation, performers lose conscious control over execution of those
skills, making intentional modifications difficult. Once the auto-
Development: History and Some Recent Criticisms
mated phase of learning has been attained, performance reaches a
The traditional view of skill acquisition is based on the assumption stable plateau with no further improvements, which is consistent
that innate biological capacities limit the level of achievement that with Galtons assumption of a performance limit.
a person can attain. Sir Francis Galton is generally recognized for The principal difference between acquisition of everyday skills
developing the scientific basis for this view in the 19th century. In and professional development appears to be primarily a difference in
his pioneering book, Hereditary Genius,1 he presented evidence that time scale. Whereas proficiency in everyday skills is attained rap-
height and body size was determined genetically, and most impor- idly, professional development (including the prerequisite educa-