The Impact of Expertise on Performance: illustrations from developmental research on memory and sports1

Abstract

Research on the impact of expertise on cognitive performance mostly conducted with adult samples has yielded impressive results, documenting the outstanding role of domain knowledge for memory and problem — solving skills. In this paper, the available research on the development of expertise in children and adolescents is reviewed in order to explore the respective roles of domain knowledge and basic intellectual abilities in determining exceptional performance. Most developmental studies conducted in different fields such as memory or sport seem to validate findings obtained from adult samples in that individual differences in domain knowledge account for the lion's share of variance explained in the performance variables. However, a closer analysis of effects reveals that individual differences in aptitude cannot be ignored and seem reliable even in homogeneous (expert) samples. Thus the developmental findings do not completely support the view proposed by Ericsson and colleagues that “deliberate practice” is the only predictor of exceptional performance. Instead, “threshold” or “partial compensation” models seem more appropriate to describe the interplay between aptitude and domain knowledge in predicting peak performance