688 the cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance

Figure 38.2 . Three examples of laboratory tasks that capture the consistently superior performance
of domain experts in chess, typing, and music. (From “Expertise,” by K. A. Ericsson and Andreas C.
Lehmann, 1999, Encyclopedia of Creativity. Copyright by Academic Press.)
experience is shown to be necessary to attain
superior expert performance. Second, only
some types of domain-related experience are
shown to lead to improvement of performance.
In addition, many thousands of hours
of specific types of practice and training have
been found to be necessary for reaching the
highest levels of performance.
The Necessity of Domain-Specific
Experience for Attaining Reproducibly
Superior Performance
Reviews (Ericsson, 1996, 2004 Ericsson &
Lehmann, 1996) show that extended
engagement in domain-related activities is
necessary to attain expert performance in
that domain. The availability of standardized
tests allows us to measure the level of performance
during development and to compare
these longitudinal data to uniform adult
standards. Hence, we can describe the development
of expert performance as a function
of age and years of experience, as follows.
First, longitudinal assessments of performance
reveal that all individuals improve
gradually, as illustrated in Figure 38.3 . There
is no objective evidence that a child or adult
is able to exhibit a high level of performance
without any relevant prior experience and
practice. Similarly, there is no evidence for
abrupt improvements of reproducible performance
when it is tested on a monthly or
yearly basis. When the performance of child
prodigies in music and chess are measured
against adult standards, they show gradual,
steady improvement over time. Second,
elite performance keeps improving beyond
the age of physical maturation – the late
teens in industrialized countries (Ulijaszek,
Johnston, & Preece, 1998) – and is, thus, not
directly limited by the functional capacity
of the body and brain. Peak performance of
experts is nearly always attained in adulthood
– many years, and even decades, after
initial exposure to the domain, as illustrated
in Figure 38.3 . The age at which performers
typically reach their highest level of