All in the Mind - Practice makes perfect?

On this week's All in the Mind, Natasha Mitchell speaks with psychologist K. Anders Ericsson on his theory that with enough deliberate practice (10,000 hours) we can learn nearly anything.

Practice makes perfect?

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The virtuoso violinist, star surgeon and super sportswoman - could any of us become the best of the best? Daniel Coyle toured the world's famous talent 'hotbeds' in search of secrets. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson says with enough 'deliberate practice' - 10,000 hours of it, he argues - anything's possible. But does that trump 'natural talent'?

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Guests

Dr K. Anders Ericsson
Conradi Eminent Scholar
Professor of Psychology
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson.dp.html

Daniel Coyle
Author and contributing editor for Outside magazine
http://thetalentcode.com/author/

Jacqui Cooper
Former world champion aerial skier
http://jacquicooper.com/

Further Information

Jacqui Cooper ski-jumping at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Publications

Title: The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born It's Grown
Author: Daniel Coyle
Publisher: Arrow Books, 2009

Title: The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance
Author: Ericsson, K. Anders; Krampe, Ralf T.; Tesch-Rer, Clemens
Publisher: Psychological Review: Vol 100(3), Jul 1993, 363-406.
URL: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50947539/Ericsson-et-al-Role-of-Deliberate-Practice-in-Acquisition-of-Expert-Performance

Title: Toward a science of exceptional achievement: attaining superior performance through deliberate practice.
Author: Ericsson KA, Nandagopal K, Roring RW.
Publisher: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Aug;1172:199-217.
URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1196/annals.1393.001/abstract

Title: From the Guest Editors: How Do Experts Learn
Author: A. Mark Williams and K. Anders Ericsson
Publisher: Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2008, 30, 653-662
URL: http://www.castonline.ilstu.edu/smith/405/readings_pdf/expert_rdngs/how_experts_learn_1.pdf

Title: Cognitive functions of the cerebellum explain how Ericsson's deliberate practice produces giftedness
Publisher: High Ability Studies; Vol 18, No 1, June 2007, pp89-92
URL: http://positivedisintegration.com/Vandervert2007.pdf

Title: Deliberate practice and expert performance: defining the path to excellence
Author: Paul Ward, Nicola J. Hodges, A. Mark Williams and Janet L. Starkes
Publisher: London: Routledge (2004)
URL: http://hkin.educ.ubc.ca/faculty/hodgesn/msl/docs/ward_chap.pdf
In A.M. Williams and N.J. Hodges (Eds.), Skill acquisition in sport: Research, theory and practice (pp. 232-258).

Title: Tracing the Development of Athletes Using Retrospective Interview Methods: A Proposed Interview and Validation Procedure for Reported Information
Author: Jean C K. Anders Ericsson, Madelyn P. Law
Publisher: Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 1. (March 2005), pp. 1-19.
URL: http://areas.fmh.utl.pt/~arosado/Repositorio/ficheiros/LONGTERM/Ref7.pdf

Title: Success is all in the Mind
Author: Shelley Gare
Publisher: The Australian newspaper, January 24, 2009.
URL: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/success-is-all-in-the-mind/story-e6frg8gf-1111118649674

Presenter: Natasha Mitchell

Producer: Maria Tickle/ Natasha Mitchell