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Biomedical subjects

K A Ericsson

Publications and source records attributed to K A Ericsson.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Long-term working memory.

To account for the large demands on working memory during text comprehension and expert performance, the traditional models of working memory involving temporary storage must be extended to include working memory based on storage in long-term memory. In the proposed theoretical framework cognitive processes are viewed as a sequence of stable states representing end products of processing. In skilled activities, acquired memory skills allow these end products to be stored in long-term memory and kept directly accessible by means of retrieval cues in short-term memory, as proposed by skilled memory theory. These theoretical claims are supported by a review of evidence on memory in text comprehension and expert performance in such domains as mental calculation, medical diagnosis, and chess.

Aptitude

Can we create gifted people?

Only in the light of specific theoretical frameworks for the development of superior performance can we productively ask to what extent that performance is due to controllable external factors and thus could potentially be engineered or 'created'. The popular view of talent acknowledges that instruction and practice are necessary but not sufficient for the attainment of élite performance. With extensive practice individuals are assumed to achieve all possible modification through learning, so that the ultimate level of performance is a function of the components that cannot be modified and are thus presumably innate. However, recent research shows that improvements in performance are possible even after extensive experience in a domain, and that performance at an international level requires over ten years of intense preparation. Furthermore, research has failed to specify and measure talent factors that predict performance. An alternative framework has been proposed on the basis of the amount of deliberate activities aimed at improving performance. The amount of deliberate practice accumulated during many years of preparation is found to be related closely to performance, even at the highest levels. This framework accounts for expert performance in terms of acquired characteristics and identifies new and different constraints on its attainment.

Adolescent

Exceptional memory.

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Cognition