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35 - Tacit Knowledge, Practical Intelligence, and Expertise

from PART VI - GENERALIZABLE MECHANISMS MEDIATING EXPERTISE AND GENERAL ISSUES

By
Anna T. Cianciolo ,
Cynthia Matthew ,
Robert J. Sternberg  and
Richard K. Wagner
Edited by
K. Anders Ericsson ,
Neil Charness ,
Paul J. Feltovich  and
Robert R. Hoffman
Anna T. Cianciolo
Affiliation:
Command Performance Research, Inc.
Cynthia Matthew
Affiliation:
PACE Center, Yale University
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University
Richard K. Wagner
Affiliation:
Florida Center for Reading Research, Department of Psychology, Florida State University
K. Anders Ericsson
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Neil Charness
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Paul J. Feltovich
Affiliation:
University of West Florida
Robert R. Hoffman
Affiliation:
University of West Florida
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Summary

The drive to excel has long challenged humans to push their bodies, minds, and technologies in the determined pursuit of success. People have demonstrated their devotion to excellence through the years of effort and practice they have been willing to invest in accomplishing their goals (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993). For example, Simon and Chase (1973) observed that no one had ever attained the rank of Grandmaster in chess without at least a decade of intense preparation. This observation has since been extended to many domains, including music, sports, and academia (Bloom, 1985; Ericsson et al., 1993; Ericsson, Chapter 38). Despite folk tales about extraordinary performances by very young individuals, it is clear that the most eminent individuals in any field do not exhibit expert levels of performance prior to an extended period of preparation.

Exploration of the nature of expertise and how it develops has interested scholars, professionals, and laypeople alike, and has involved a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. One of the enduring debates over many years of study is whether the development of expertise is largely attributable to unusual characteristics of individuals, often thought of in terms of largely inherited talents, or of their learning histories (see Horn & Masunaga, Chapter 34).

Type
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Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance , pp. 613 - 632
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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