S03:E05
What counts as deliberate practice—and why does the definition matter?
In this episode, we explore K. Anders Ericsson and Kyle W. Harwell’s 2019 response to research questioning how much practice contributes to expert performance. Their argument centers on a distinction: activities grouped together as “practice” may have very different goals, feedback, and teacher involvement.
We unpack four types of practice—deliberate, purposeful, structured, and naive—and consider why a performance test needs to match the skill being practiced. We also examine their reanalysis, which linked accumulated practice to 29% of performance variation, rising to 61% after statistical correction for estimated measurement error.
Finally, we return to the genetics debate and ask how the musical abilities researchers choose to measure shape their conclusions.
Featured paper
Ericsson, K. A., & Harwell, K. W. (2019). Deliberate Practice and Proposed Limits on the Effects of Practice on the Acquisition of Expert Performance: Why the Original Definition Matters and Recommendations for Future Research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2396.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02396
Season 3, Episode 5 · The Voice Science Podcast
https://voicescience.org
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