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(PDF) Beyond Born versus Made

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Added on  2021-06-14

(PDF) Beyond Born versus Made

   Added on 2021-06-14

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1Running head: BEYOND BORN VERSUS MADEBeyond born versus made: Deliberate practice and cognitive ability matter in expertiseXin Ying Lim
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2BEYOND BORN VERSUS MADEAbstractWhether experts are born or made has been a central issue in expertise literature. The evidence that experts are always made through deliberate practice accumulated over time is consistent and overwhelming. This belief is popularised until a growing body of evidence hasestablished the predictive value of cognitive ability for expertise-superior performance, particularly within educational and occupational domains. Inter-individual variability is foundeven among the top 1% of cognitive ability; individuals with higher ability are more likely to have greater attainment. Individuals may have remarkable inbuilt abilities, but skills tend to be developed over time through extended practice. In this regard, experts, as described by Wai (2014), are “born, then made”. Indeed, there is evidence that deliberate practice and cognitive ability, together, are able to explain a large proportion of variance inexpertise.Therefore, to adequately comprehend expertise acquisition and development, expertise research should directly and empirically examine the interplay between deliberate practiceand cognitive ability, moving beyond born versus made.
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Beyond born versus made: Deliberate practice and cognitive ability matter in expertiseThe acquisition of expertise, as stated by Ericsson, Preitula and Cokely (2007), is“made, not born”, suggesting that high achievement in particular domains is mostly attributable to accumulation of deliberate practice and not inherent talent. The notion that anyone can achieve consistently superior levels of performance in any field with time and effort has been institutionalised in the popular press. However, it is demonstrated that individual differences in abilities exist even within the top 1%; higher ability is associated with greater attainment (Lubinski & Benbow, 2000). These findings have left room for discussion as to whether cognitive ability, by itself, is necessary and sufficient to explain expertise acquisition. Cognitive ability refers to the ability of individuals to perform tasks thatrequire them to involve in mental processing, comprehension and manipulation of information (Schneider & McGrew, 2012). It also lies at the center of intelligence (g factor) nexus (Johnson, Nijenhuis, & Bouchard, 2008). In this issue, Wai (2014) examined both prospective and retrospective data and declared that experts are “born, then made”, specifically in educational and occupational domains. In other words, individuals require innate exceptional abilities, along with extended practice, in order to become experts. This paper will argue that, in line with Wai’s (2014) position, deliberate practice and cognitive ability should be treated as complementary and not competing in terms of expert performanceand achievement. The discussion will first begin with the overview of Wai’s study. Then, the paper will review scientific literature in favour of the role of cognitive ability in expertise acquisition. The interaction between deliberate practice and cognitive ability will be addressedsubsequently.Cognitive ability matters in expertiseWai (2014) conducts a longitudinal study to argue that, in addition to extraordinary practice, ability or talent is essential in the development of expertise within educational and
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occupational domains. Wai reviews prospective data from the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) and Project Talent. The findings reveal that the ability distributionidentified in middle and high school is highly predictive of educational attainment. Notably, ability differences are found even among individuals who are in the top percentiles of ability and the difference has led them to reach different educational levels. Additionally, the retrospective data from America’s elite shows that individuals who have reached the occupational pinnacle in America are of high ability at age 17 and most of them are in the top1% of ability. Overall, the incorporation of prospective and retrospective data suggests that cognitive ability measured at an early age can potentially predict long term professional success.Expert performance and cognitive abilityThere is a strong theoretical and empirical basis to support Wai’s (2014) proposition that expert performance is limited by cognitive abilities. First, it has been well established in the psychological literature that g factor is highly heritable (Bouchard, 2004) and plays a central role in human learning, particularly in high cognitive demand tasks (Ackerman & Cianciolo, 2000). According to Ericsson and colleagues (2007), deliberate practice involves individuals to explicitly and consciously search for strategies to improve and extend the rangeof skills required to enhance their performance. Therefore, deliberate practice entails enormous attention and metacognitive thinking, which are both related to intelligence (Schweizer & Moosbrugger, 2004; Stankov, 2000). Despite the mechanisms underlies the link, it is clear that deliberate practice correlates more with intelligence compared to other forms of practice. In fact, Ericsson et al. (2007) emphasise that “not all practice makes perfect” and to develop expertise, individuals require a certain type of practice, which is deliberate practice. In line with these observations, empirical work has been demonstrated that cognitive ability is linked to expert performance. For example, Kuncel, Hezlett andOnes
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