Expertise research has been dedicated to studying musical experts, chess masters, and Olympic athletes for decades. What factors determine whether a person remains an amateur in these fields, becomes a professional expert, or reaches world-class level? What role does the type and amount of deliberate practice play, and what influence do cognitive and mental factors have?
At around the age of 7-8, I received a chess computer game as a gift. I played the game with fascination and completed it within the first few days, and it didn't take long for chess to captivate me. However, that's as far as it went. If it weren't for the piano entering my life at around the same age, I might have invested more time into chess in the long run.
Even at the world-class level, there are numerous anecdotal reports about a shared love of music and chess. The Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich said, "Chess is my great love. It combines art and science," while Robert Schumann expressed it analytically: "It is with music as it is with chess. The queen (melody) has the greatest power, but the king (harmony) always decides the outcome." Sergei Prokofiev, David Oistrakh, and Charles Mingus were said to be good chess players, and Arnold Schoenberg invented chess variants that were discovered in an exhibition on chess and music in Ebersberg near Munich in 2022 - the "Coalition Chess." Arnold Schoenberg's game pieces are visually influenced by the First World War (cannons, tanks, and submarines), and the extended rules also refer to that. In Schoenberg's variant, there are four "powers" that compete in teams of two against each other.
Cognitive Abilities - Inside the Minds of Experts
"In a general way the memory of chess experts is like the memory of the great musicians. Just the same as a great pianist, for instance, can sit down and play for hours without looking at the score of any of the works he play, a chess master can go through endless games and variations which he has unconsciously stored in his mind. The great musicians see the notes in their minds' eyes as though they were in front of them. In just the same way the chess master sees the moves and positions. " (J.R. Capablanca, "Chess")
In fact, scientists have attempted to understand how world-class experts, such as in chess, think compared to amateurs. What thought processes are crucial for them to make better move decisions or to more efficiently, fluently, and accurately translate composition into music? Adriaan de Groot conducted interviews with chess players as early as 1979, asking them to think aloud while facing the same challenging game situation. He identified two crucial differences between the groups: Firstly, the top players were able to quickly perceive the game situation, including the structure and position of the chess pieces, allowing them to identify weaknesses in their opponents, for example. Secondly, they were significantly better at generating multiple possible moves and identifying the superior ones. Subsequent studies demonstrated that more experience in chess is associated with better foresight and move planning, and outstanding chess players are particularly skilled at mentally retaining game situations. These abilities are, in fact, essential for music-making as well. Anticipating harmonic and melodic structures, recognizing patterns (such as scales or chord materials), quickly selecting suitable fingerings or bowings, and memorizing and having an overview of the piece during performance are all crucial. The more experience one has, the easier these thinking processes can be facilitated through existing memories and pattern recognition in the brain. Abilities in processing speed, working memory, and foresight are fundamental neuropsychological skills of the brain that are linked to intelligence and influenced by genetic predisposition and general cognitive capacity. Perception skills and the ability to observe and analyze oneself, experts, and teachers accurately are often well-developed in successful chess and music students. Perhaps these similarities in cognitive thinking processes explain why many musicians also have a fascination or talent for chess!
World-class - Talent or Deliberate Practice?
The question of how individuals become experts in highly complex activities such as chess, music, or science has long fascinated psychology. Especially, whether world-class expertise is primarily attributed to innate talent or deliberate practice has been a subject of debate.
Deliberate practice refers to a specific type of focused and purposeful practice that involves pushing oneself beyond the comfort zone, seeking feedback, and making continuous improvements. It entails setting specific goals, breaking down complex skills into manageable parts, and engaging in targeted practice sessions with full concentration.
In 1993, Karl Ericsson's team proposed the theory of "Deliberate Practice" and based on their study results, they argued that approximately 10,000 hours of various learning experiences through voluntary practice or engagement with the domain of expertise, as well as guided practice, are typically required for expert performance. Even at the world-class level, individual differences - apart from physical limitations - are explained solely by the time and effort invested. This publication, in which three categories of violinists (amateurs, good violinists, and the best) were retrospectively interviewed, subsequently went viral, and is now known to many as the 10,000-hour rule. Similar findings were also observed in other domains of expertise, such as sports or chess. Neil Charness and his group found that the majority of performance differences among chess players could be explained by deliberate practice, with the majority of the effect attributed solely to practice, such as analyzing chess games.
However, due to methodological flaws, Karl Ericsson's original study has been criticized repeatedly, until finally, in 2019, another research group meticulously attempted to replicate the study design with violinists in order to bring clarity to the debate. The results were astonishing: The best violinists practiced significantly less than the good violinists, although both groups practiced more than the amateurs.
Figures 1 and 2 from Macnamara, B. N., & Maitra, M. (2019). The role of deliberate practice in expert performance: Revisiting Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer (1993). Royal Society open science, 6(8), 190327.
While deliberate practice remains a central predictor of reaching expert level in this study, it explains only half as much variance (25% compared to 48%) as assumed in the 1993 study.
Therefore, it is likely that various other factors also play a role. This includes, of course, genetics or innate talent, as well as motivational factors, proper and healthy practice, and the significance of breaks or other non-musical influences on the brain and learning.
More on deliberate practice, practice management, and healthy practice coming soon in the next episodes.
Stay tuned :-)
Who is smarter - cat or dog?
According to science, the intelligence of cats and dogs differs primarily in quality, although there is often a debate among cat and dog people about this. Cats excel in independent, problem-solving thinking, while dogs possess higher social intelligence, making them easier to train. As a result, dogs have more developed brain areas for social cognition, while cats have larger areas responsible for perception, movement coordination, and spatial memory.
Smilla is definitely a smart cat who can not only open doors and drawers but also remembers exactly where each toy is located under which piece of furniture, even after months (some of which I don't even remember still exist). She also shows great skill and intelligence in hiding and hunting games, and she was able to recognize the cellist Jacqueline du Pré at the age of 5 months :-) !!!
Sources and further reading:
Altenmüller, E., & Klöppel, R. (2015). Die Kunst des Musizierens: von den physiologischen und psychologischen Grundlagen zur Praxis. Schott Music.
Charness, N., Tuffiash, M., Krampe, R., Reingold, E., & Vasyukova, E. (2005). The role of deliberate practice in chess expertise. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(2), 151-165.
Cross, N. (2004). Expertise in design: an overview. Design studies, 25(5), 427-441.
de Groot, A. (1978). Thought and choice and chess. The Hague: Mouton. (Original work published 1946).
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). Protocol analysis and expert thought: Concurrent verbalizations of thinking during experts’ performance on representative tasks. The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance, 223-241.
Ericsson, K. A. (2006). The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance. The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance, 38(685-705), 2-2.
Macnamara, B. N., & Maitra, M. (2019). The role of deliberate practice in expert performance: Revisiting Ericsson, Krampe & Tesch-Römer (1993). Royal Society open science, 6(8), 190327.
Miller, S. D., Hubble, M. A., & Chow, D. (2020). Better results: Using deliberate practice to improve therapeutic effectiveness. American Psychological Association.
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2017). Does far transfer exist? Negative evidence from chess, music, and working memory training. Current directions in psychological science, 26(6), 515-520.
Zographos, A. (2017). Music and Chess: Apollo Meets Caissa. SCB Distributors.
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