> From: "Nottingham Andy" <AJN194@psy.soton.ac.uk>
> Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 10:34:09 GMT
>
> OK just a small point about not everyone being Einstien. I think the
> most important point is that everyone has the potential for Einstien's
> creativity, same goes for Shakespeare and Michealangelo for that
> matter. They were all human beings as far as I know, they had
> exactly the same capabilities as everyone else, the only difference
> was in the way that they used their capabilities.
Tell me: Is your conclusion that we can all be Einsteins based on
evidence or just democratic feelings?
Let's take it gradually: Can we all be olympic champions (in any/every
sport)? Can we all have a voice as good as Pavarotti's?
Ok, fine; you may want to say these are just physical/anatomical traits:
But what do you think mental/cognitive traits are, if not physical too?
If one can vary, why can't the other? And have you noticed that just
about every human trait (height, weight, speed) varies in the shape of
a Gaussian distribution (bell curve), with a few very high, a few very
low, and most squeezed in the middle? The same seems to be true of
intelligence, as measured by IQ tests (or, if you don't believe IQ tests
measure intelligence, it is true about whatever it is that that the
tests DO measure: some are high, some low, most medium, and this is
stable across time, for the most part).:
But don't get discouraged. There's hope. See the asbtracts at the very
end of this message.
> Another point that hasn't been mentioned, computers cannot be given
> our method of perceiving time. Computers have built in clocks which
> can tell them the exact time at any moment. As humans we may have
> body clocks but the don't tell you exactly what time it is. Our
> perception of time seems to differ depending on situation. If you are
> waiting in a queue time seems to pass slower than normally, a similar
> thing happens while concentrating on work 'time flies'.
You have to distinguish real time from apparent time. A real clock would
be enough for the real timing functions of a computer or a body.
Apparent time, which is how fast time SEEMS to go by, is another matter,
but not necessarily a noncomputational one. Why couldn't there be a real
clock, and then some distortion mechanism, that makes it feel as if it's
going slower or faster. (Of course the question of how computation -- or
anything -- could embody FEELINGS, whether of apparent time or of
anything, is another problem, and it's called the mind/body problem...)
This will come up again when we get to the "mental timing" lectures near
the end of the course.
> One final point we were shaped by evolution, unless you have a better
> answer. Evolution only keeps survival traits, surely our self
> awareness was necessary for our survival. Likewise if you say we do
> not have the ability to chose, then why have the belief that we can?
Good questions. But it's not true that each and every trait we have has
a specific survival value. Some of them are just piggy-backing on
others, with no particular survival value of their own. Evolution does
not come up with the best possible solution every time; just one that's
good enough to get by, and better than the competition.
For example, we have appendices, because some of the ancestors we have
in common with grass-eaters evolved them; but if we didn't know
about them, we'd have to say: They're there; they don't do us harm, they
don't do us any good.
That said, it's hard to imagine that such a big, centre-stage trait as
consciousness could have just been some kind of irrelevant side-effect
like the appendix. This will come up again in the lectures on evolution
and on consciousness.
Here's hope that we may all have been potential Einsteins after all (if
ony we had worked harder from age 4 - 14!)
TI: EXPERT AND EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE - EVIDENCE OF MAXIMAL
ADAPTATION TO TASK CONSTRAINTS
AU: ERICSSON_KA, LEHMANN_AC
NA: FLORIDA STATE UNIV,DEPT PSYCHOL,TALLAHASSEE,FL,32306
JN: ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY, 1996, Vol.47, pp.273-305
AB: Expert and exceptional performance are shown to be mediated by
cognitive and perceptual-motor skills and by domain-specific
physiological and anatomical adaptations. The highest levels of
human performance in different domains can only be attained
after around ten years of extended, daily amounts of deliberate
practice activities. Laboratory analyses of expert performance
in many domains such as chess, medicine, auditing, computer
programming, bridge, physics, sports, typing, juggling, dance,
and music reveal maximal adaptations of experts to domain-
specific constraints. For example, acquired anticipatory skills
circumvent general limits on reaction time, and distinctive
memory skills allow a domain-specific expansion of working
memory capacity to support planning, reasoning, and evaluation.
Many of the mechanisms of superior expert performance serve the
dual purpose of mediating experts' current performance and of
allowing continued improvement of this performance in response
to informative feedback during practice activities.
TI: EXPERT PERFORMANCE - ITS STRUCTURE AND ACQUISITION
AU: ERICSSON_KA, CHARNESS_N
NA: FLORIDA STATE UNIV,DEPT PSYCHOL,TALLAHASSEE,FL,32306
UNIV WATERLOO,DEPT PSYCHOL,WATERLOO N2L 3G1,ONTARIO,CANADA
JN: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST, 1994, Vol.49, No.8, pp.725-747
AB: Counter to the common belief that expert performance reflects
innate abilities and capacities, recent research in different
domains of expertise has shown that expert performance is
predominantly mediated by acquired complex skills and
physiological adaptations. For elite performers, supervised
practice starts at very young ages and is maintained at high
daily levels for more than a decade. The effects of extended
deliberate practice are more far-reaching than is commonly
believed. Performers can acquire skills that circumvent basic
limits on working memory capacity and sequential processing.
Deliberate practice can also lead to anatomical changes
resulting from adaptations to intense physical activity. The
study of expert performance has important implications for our
understanding of the structure and limits of human adaptation
and optimal learning.
TI: CAN WE CREATE GIFTED PEOPLE
AU: ERICSSON_KA, KRAMPE_RT, HEIZMANN_S
NA: FLORIDA STATE UNIV,DEPT PSYCHOL,TALLAHASSEE,FL,32306
MAX PLANCK INST HUMAN DEV & EDUC,W-1000 BERLIN 33,GERMANY
JN: CIBA FOUNDATION SYMPOSIA, 1993, Vol.178, pp.222-249
AB: Only in the light of specific theoretical frameworks for the
development of superior performance can we productively ask to
what extent that performance is due to controllable external
factors and thus could potentially be engineered or 'created'.
The popular view of talent acknowledges that instruction and
practice are necessary but not sufficient for the attainment of
elite performance. With extensive practice individuals are
assumed to achieve all possible modification through learning,
so that the ultimate level of performance is a function of the
components that cannot be modified and are thus presumably
innate. However, recent research shows that improvements in
performance are possible even after extensive experience in a
domain, and that performance at an international level requires
over ten years of intense preparation. Furthermore, research
has failed to specify and measure talent factors that predict
performance. An alternative framework has been proposed on the
basis of the amount of deliberate activities aimed at improving
performance. The amount of deliberate practice accumulated
during many years of preparation is found to be related closely
to performance, even at the highest levels. This framework
accounts for expert performance in terms of acquired
characteristics and identifies new and different constraints on
its attainment.
TI: THE ROLE OF DELIBERATE PRACTICE IN THE ACQUISITION OF EXPERT
PERFORMANCE
AU: ERICSSON_KA, KRAMPE_RT, TESCHROMER_C
NA: UNIV COLORADO,INST COGNIT SCI,BOULDER,CO,80309
MAX PLANCK INST HUMAN DEV & EDUC,BERLIN,GERMANY
JN: PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW, 1993, Vol.100, No.3, pp.363-406
AB: The theoretical framework presented in this article explains
expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged
efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational
and external constraints. In most domains of expertise,
individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful
activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize
improvement. Individual differences, even among elite
performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of
deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to
reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense
practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert
performance provides unique evidence on the potential and
limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.
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