Testing assumptions of deliberate practice theory, relevance, effort, and inherent enjoyment of practice on a novel task

This study examined three assumptions of the theory of deliberate practice: that deliberate practice is perceived as relevant for improving performance and that it requires effort, but that it is not perceived as being inherently enjoyable. Of particular interest was the assumption of inherent enjoyment of practice since that has been questioned in previous research. 30 undergraduate and graduate students combined practiced a maze memorization and recall task and rated relevance of practice for improving recall, the practice effort, and inherent enjoyment of practice. The findings were consistent with three assumptions, but also suggested that perceptions about relevance, effort, and inherent enjoyment of practice may change with increasing experience and performance.     

Predicting performance times from deliberate practice hours for triathletes and swimmers: what, when, and where is practice important?

In Studies 1 and 2, the authors evaluated deliberate practice theory through analyses of the relationship between practice and performance for 2 populations of athletes: triathletes and swimmers, respectively. In Study 3, the authors obtained evaluations of practice from athletes' diaries. Across athletes, length of time involved in fitness activities was not related to performance. For the triathletes, a significant percentage of variance in performance was captured by practice. This was not so for sprint events for the swimmers, in which gender was a significant predictor. In the diaries, physical activities were perceived as enjoyable. In contrast to the results obtained from questionnaires, enjoyment did not covary with an activity's relevance to improving performance. Although these findings highlight the importance of sport-specific practice, the authors question a domain-independent account of expertise based on deliberate practice.     

Subjective cognitive effort: a model of states, traits, and time

Self-regulation theories were used to develop a dynamic model of the determinants of subjective cognitive effort. The authors assessed the roles of malleable states and stable individual differences. Subjective cognitive effort and perceived difficulty were measured while individuals performed an air traffic control task. As expected, Conscientiousness moderated the effort trajectory. Individuals with high Conscientiousness maintained subjective cognitive effort at high levels for longer than their counterparts. There were also individual differences in reactions to perceptions of task difficulty. The intra-individual relationship between perceived difficulty and subjective cognitive effort was stronger for individuals with low ability or low Conscientiousness than for their counterparts. A follow-up study showed that the measures of perceived difficulty and subjective cognitive effort were sensitive to a task difficulty manipulation as well as that the relationship between perceived difficulty and subjective cognitive effort held after controlling for self-set goal level. These findings contribute to the self-regulation literature by identifying factors that influence changes in subjective cognitive effort during skill acquisition.     

Attribution of athletic expertise by college coaches

The goals of the study were to identify the factors that college coaches associate with athletic achievement and to test deliberate practice theory predictions for practice relevance, effort, and pleasure. Swimming, tennis, and volleyball coaches from Division I and Division III schools rank ordered 15 attributes that contribute to successful athletic achievement. They also rated the relevance, effort, and pleasure of 7 athletic and 7 everyday events for improving athletic achievement. The rank orders showed that the coaches primarily attributed athletic achievement to innate talent, intrinsic motivation, and effort while factors such as accumulated practice and type of the practice received lower rankings. Findings for practice effort were consistent with deliberate practice theory while the relevance and pleasure findings were mixed. Several explanations for successful athletic achievement, other than talent, are discussed.     

Deliberate practice among South African small business owners: Relationships with education,cognitive ability,knowledge, and success

The study examines antecedents and outcomes of deliberate practice activities in South African small businesses. Deliberate practice consists of individualized self‐regulated and effortful activities aimed at improving one's current performance level. Interview and questionnaire data from 90 South African business owners showed a direct impact of deliberate practice on entrepreneurial knowledge as well as an indirect effect on business growth via entrepreneurial knowledge. Cognitive ability and education were identified as antecedents of deliberate practice. Findings underline the importance of continuous proactive learning efforts in small business. The results of this study are relevant for policy makers, consultants, and credit providers.     

A deliberate practice account of typing proficiency in everyday typists

The concept of deliberate practice was introduced to explain exceptional performance in domains such as music and chess. We apply deliberate practice theory to intermediate-level performance in typing, an activity that many people pursue on a regular basis. Sixty university students with several years typing experience participated in laboratory sessions that involved the assessment of abilities, a semistructured interview on typing experience as well as various typing tasks. In line with traditional theories of skill acquisition, experience (amount of typing since introduction to the keyboard) was related to typing performance. A perceptual speed test (digit-symbol substitution) and a measure of motor abilities (tapping) were not significantly related to performance. In line with deliberate practice theory, the highest level of performance was reported among participants who had attended a typing class in the past and who reported to adopt the goal of typing quickly during everyday typing. Findings suggest that even after several years of experience engagement in an everyday activity can serve as an opportunity for further skill improvement if individuals are willing to push themselves.     

Deliberate practice in dogs: a canine model of expertise

The acquisition of expertise is an area of controversy between those who lean more toward learning and those who lean more toward talent. Because the genetics and early life experiences of humans are not open to direct manipulation, human studies are of limited use in this debate. Studies using nonhumans as expert models may prove useful in resolving this dispute. For nonhumans to be considered proper models of human experts, there must be evidence supporting a shared acquisition mechanism. A candidate mechanism is deliberate practice. The author tested the deliberate practice theory of expertise acquisition on dogs competing in the sport of agility. The author examined the relationships between amounts of accumulated deliberate practice and agility performance measures. The author found there was a statistically significant relationship between the amount of deliberate practice and measured performance in agility dogs, even when controlling for sex, breed group, age, and height.     

Deliberate practice predicts performance over time in adolescent chess players and drop‐outs: A linear mixed models analysis

In this study, the longitudinal relation between deliberate practice and performance in chess was examined using a linear mixed models analysis. The practice activities and performance ratings of young elite chess players, who were either in, or had dropped out of the Dutch national chess training, were analysed since they had started playing chess seriously. The results revealed that deliberate practice (i.e. serious chess study alone and serious chess play) strongly contributed to chess performance. The influence of deliberate practice was not only observable in current performance, but also over chess players' careers. Moreover, although the drop‐outs' chess ratings developed more slowly over time, both the persistent and drop‐out chess players benefited to the same extent from investments in deliberate practice. Finally, the effect of gender on chess performance proved to be much smaller than the effect of deliberate practice. This study provides longitudinal support for the monotonic benefits assumption of deliberate practice, by showing that over chess players' careers, deliberate practice has a significant effect on performance, and to the same extent for chess players of different ultimate performance levels. The results of this study are not in line with critique raised against the deliberate practice theory that the factors deliberate practice and talent could be confounded.     

Rich man, poor man: Developmental differences in attributions and perceptions

In an examination guided by cognitive developmental and attribution theory of how explanations of wealth and poverty and perceptions of rich and poor people change with age and are interrelated, 6-, 10-, and 14-year-olds (N=88) were asked for their causal attributions and trait judgments concerning a rich man and a poor man. First graders, like older children, perceived the rich man as more competent than the poor man. However, they had difficulty in explaining wealth and poverty, especially poverty, and their trait perceptions were associated primarily with their attributions of wealth to job status, education, and luck. Fifth and ninth graders more clearly attributed wealth and poverty to the equity factors of ability and effort and based their trait perceptions on these attributions. Although the use of structured attribution questions revealed more understanding among young children than previous studies have suggested, the findings suggest a shift with age in the underlying bases for differential evaluation of rich and poor people from a focus on good outcomes associated with wealth (a good education and job) to a focus on personal qualities responsible for wealth (ability and effort).     

Black Students' Reactions to Feedback Conveyed by White and Black Teachers1

The present investigation examined some processes mediating self-fulfilling prophecies among black students. Specifically, we hypothesized that feedback conveyed by black and white teachers would differentially influence black students' perceptions of how the teacher viewed their success/failure, effort, ability, luck and task difficulty. In addition, we hypothesized that negative feedback would affect perceptions of evaluations differently than positive feedback. Ninety black undergraduates participated in an experiment in which a black or white teacher (confederate) expressed one of five evaluative feedback responses to a student's score on an analogies test. The results provided partial support for the first hypothesis: black female students perceived white teachers as assessing their performance less positively: that is, they perceived them to underestimate their ability and the difficulty of the task. Negative feedback also led students to believe the teacher held an unfavorable but inaccurate impression of their ability and effort, and that the teacher underestimated the difficulty of the task. These findings suggest that black students—black females in particular—may assume that white teachers hold less favorable assessments of them than black teachers and all students may be sensitive to negative evaluations.     

Overpaid or Overworked? Cognitive and Behavioral Reactions to Inequitable Rewards1

Although early studies support the equity theory prediction that increasing rewards for task performance enhance the effort devoted to the task, these findings may be challenged on a number of counts. Social exchange theory suggests, for example, that when rewards exceed what is felt to be equitable, the recipient may increase his perception of task difficulty and his estimate of what is a fair return for his efforts. In this case, there should be little need to devote increased energy to task performance. The present study, conducted in both Italy and the United States, supports this reasoning. Compared with equitably rewarded subjects, those rewarded by either 40% or 80% over their estimate of what was fair, altered both their perceptions of task difficulty and of a fair return. No performance differences were found.     

Cognitive behavioral therapy in practice: therapist perceptions of techniques,outcome measures,practitioner qualifications,and relation to research

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has a strong evidence base for several psychiatric disorders, however, it may be argued that currently there is no overall agreement on what counts as ‘CBT’. One reason is that CBT is commonly perceived as encompassing a broad range of treatments, from purely cognitive to purely behavioral, making it difficult to arrive at a clear definition. The purpose of the present study was to explore practicing therapists’ perceptions of CBT. Three hundred fifty members of two multi-disciplinary interest groups for CBT in Sweden participated. Mean age was 46 years, 68% were females, 63% psychologists and mean number of years of professional experience was 12 years. Participants completed a web-based survey including items covering various aspects of CBT practice. Overall, therapist perceptions of the extent to which different treatment techniques and procedures were consistent with CBT were in line with current evidence-based CBT protocols and practice guidelines, as were therapists’ application of the techniques and procedures in their own practice. A majority of participants (78%) agreed that quality of life or level of functioning were the most important outcome measures for evaluating treatment success. Eighty percent of therapists believed that training in CBT at a basic level was a requirement for practicing CBT. There was a medium size Spearman correlation of r_s=.46 between the perceived importance of research to practice and the extent to which participants kept themselves updated on research. Implications for training, quality assurance, and the effectiveness of CBT in clinical practice are discussed.     

Achievement goals, task performance, and interest: why perceived goal difficulty matters

In field studies, mastery goals, which focus on developing skill, often predict task interest but not actual performance. Performance-approach goals, which focus on outperforming others, instead often predict strong performance but not interest. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that these distinct goal effects trace to goal difficulty perceptions. In each study, participants assigned to a performance-approach goal perceived their goal to be harder, and therefore felt more performance pressure, than those assigned to a mastery goal. Among participants low in dispositional achievement orientation, this experience translated into lower task interest when pursuing the performance-approach goal. However, participants in both studies also performed the activity better when pursuing this goal instead of a standard mastery goal, although this was not mediated by self-reported goal difficulty perceptions. Finally, further demonstrating the role of goal difficulty, a mastery goal manipulated to appear more difficult than a standard mastery goal produced effects matching the performance-approach goal.     

Becoming an expert in the musical domain: It takes more than just practice

Previous research has supported the theory that acquisition of expertise in any domain is possible for healthy individuals with sufficient deliberate practice, but such an extreme environmental position brings the existence of innate talent into question. The present study investigates the effects of both environmental factors and talent on expert performance in both high school and conservatory-level musicians. Audition scores and accumulated practice time were recorded, and correlated with scores on Gordon's Advanced Measures of Music Audiation and Raven's Progressive Matrices. Higher-level musicians report significantly higher mean levels on innate characteristics such as general intelligence and music audiation, in addition to higher levels of accumulated practice time. These factors together accounted for more of the variance in music performance than practice alone. A multi-factor view is thus shown to be the best explanation for the acquisition of musical expertise.     

Examining Situationally Induced State Goal Orientation Effects on Task Perceptions,Performance, and Satisfaction: A Two‐Dimensional Conceptualization1

We examined the longitudinal effects of situationally induced 2‐dimensional state goal orientations (i.e., achievement goals) on perceptions, performance, and satisfaction. Results (N = 268) indicated that high state learning cues led to higher perceived challenge and, for higher ability individuals, greater performance gains. Further, high state performance cues led to higher perceived effort. However, results revealed that state learning and performance effects were more complex than expected. State learning effects on challenge and state performance effects on effort were both stronger with other cues absent. Additionally, increasingly beneficial state learning cue effects were stronger for higher ability individuals. Thus, results provided support that state learning and performance goals are separate dimensions, and their interactive effects need further examination.     

Psychological momentum: intuitive physics and naive beliefs

The present research examines psychological momentum (PM), a perceived force that lay intuition suggests influences performance. PM theory is proposed to account for how momentum perceptions arise, and four studies demonstrate the influence of lay intuitions about PM on expectations regarding performance outcomes. Study 1 establishes that individuals share intuitions about the types of events that precipitate PM, and Study 2 finds that defeating a rival increases momentum perceptions. Study 3 provides evidence for the lay belief that as more PM accumulates during a prior task, there should be more residual momentum left to carry over to a subsequent task, and Study 4 finds that an individual whose PM is interrupted is expected to have greater difficulty completing a task than is an individual whose steady progress is interrupted. Discussion focuses on linkages between PM and related constructs.     

Timed reactions to an object in apparent motion: Evidence on Cartesian and non-Cartesian perceptual hypotheses

In three experiments on apparent motion, subjects were to press a computer key as quickly as possible either when the apparently moving stimulus passed the midpoint of its trajectory or when it reached the endpoint. If motion is perceived as a trajectory through a series of spatial locations, and if this type of percept is the basis of deliberate responding (assumptions that can be considered Cartesian in origin), then reaction times should be faster to the midpoint than to the endpoint. In contrast to these assumptions, there was no difference between reaction times to these two points. Alternative accounts of the results are discussed.     

Internet Channel and Cannibalization: An Empirical Assessment of Sales Agents’ Perspective

Organizations increasingly use Internet channels to enhance performance, consolidate existing markets, and reach new markets. The overarching benefits realized through the Internet oftentimes come at the expense of perceived job insecurity among individuals in the organization. This study explores perceptions of job insecurity among sales agents when the Internet seems to cannibalize their business, customer relationships, and jobs. Results suggest that sales agents’ perceptions of cannibalization negatively influence their effort, job satisfaction, and job performance, whereas relational capital moderates the influence of these perceptions. In a post hoc analysis, the impact of perceived cannibalization is found to be more severe for less experienced sales agents than for more experienced sales agents.     

初中生数学家庭作业质量、控制感与作业情绪对作业努力的影响

采用问卷调查法,以 463 名初中生为被试,探讨了初中生感知到的数学家庭作业质量、控制感和家庭作业情绪影响家庭作业努力的内在作用机制。结果发现：(1)积极数学家庭作业情绪和消极数学家庭作业情绪均在数学家庭作业质量和数学家庭作业努力之间起完全中介作用;(2)数学家庭作业质量可以通过数学控制感分别经积极和消极数学家庭作业情绪的多重中介来预测数学家庭作业努力。研究表明,初中生感知到的数学家庭作业质量、控制感和家庭作业情绪均是其家庭作业努力的重要影响因素。     

Research Note: An Exploratory Analysis of Salesperson Perceptions of the Criteria Used in Performance Appraisals,Job Satisfaction,and Organizational Commitment

In some sales organizations the performance appraisal is treated as a bureaucratic exercise required by some “higher-up” executive. As such, sales managers may essentially conduct appraisals in an arbitrary and perfunctory manner. This behavior could be the result of the manager's perception that conducting performance appraisals requires considerable amounts of time and effort, which provides few rewards, but adds considerably to the manager's level of conflict and stress. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships existing between one aspect of performance appraisals, salesperson perceptions of the appropriateness of the criteria used, and two other variables, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. A survey of retail salespeople provided the data required to evaluate the relationship between satisfaction, commitment, and the perceived appropriateness of the criteria used. The findings indicate that salesperson satisfaction levels are significantly correlated with the level of the perceived inappropriateness of the evaluation criteria used. However, the findings also indicate that the perceptions of the inappropriateness of the evaluation criteria are not significantly related to the salesperson's level of organizational commitment. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding the salesperson's role in the development of the performance appraisal process.