Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Argument - Ten-Thousand-Hour Mark
On page 70, Shenk states that "sublime pianists" to "profound physicists" all required the average “ten-thousand-hour mark” of practicing in order to achieve greatness. Daniel Levitin supports this claim that this is a known number for success and that no one has ever been able to prove that perfection is possible in less time than this (256). How do you respond to this claim that an average of 3 hours a day over 10 years is all that is needed for greatness? Why this number and how have scientists been able to prove this to be true? Also, how do so many hours of practice play into gene development? Are genes made more complex during training, or how are they controlled in order to achieve such muscle memory and perfection? Do people with certain genes for memory have an advantage over others starting from scratch? Cite specific real world examples and make biological connections to muscle development, memory, or motor skill refinement.
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The idea that simply reaching a ten-thousand-hour mark is ALL that is needed for greatness is inaccurate and has not been claimed by researchers; Shenk explains that "ten thousand hours of deliberate practice [is] one of the necessary components to extraordinary achievement" (70 footnote 3). The emphasis in that statement ought to fall on deliberate, as deliberate practice is not in any sense "mere experience and mindless drill." The key to deliberate practice is pushing past achieved skill levels to reach for constant improvement. As any student of music understands, everything that goes on in the practice room should sound bad, because you don't need to practice what you're already good at when the goal is to improve. The physiological result of such practice is muscle memory or "a type of movement with which the muscles become familiar over time" (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-muscle-memory.htm). For example a piano player is able to produce specific chords at a faster and faster tempo over time by repeatedly practicing them over and over so that their fingers become familiarized with the positions and less thought or problem solving is involved in finding them than the first time he or she ever played them. This is because the musician's brain has been developing neural pathways throughout the duration of her practicing and over time neuron communication with muscles facilitates playing without the musician telling the muscles to move between the different chords.
ReplyDeleteGenes interact with the idea of deliberate practice in the sense that "when the human body is put under exceptional strain, a range of dormant genes in the DNA are expressed and extraordinary physiological processes are activated" (http://www.skillteam.se/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Ericsson_delib_pract.pdf). Consistent metabolic demands placed on an individual result in adaptations with the cells reorganized to meet new demands while avoiding excessive strain. Through so many hours of deliberate practice in which limitations are always pushed beyond, over ten-thousand-hours of practice in which genes turn on and off and metabolic processes and cellular organization are constantly refined and revised to most efficiently meet the demands of the task placed upon the individual is undoubtedly a safe bet for drawing the conclusion that the individual has achieved a high level of mastery of the specific skill.
In regards to the idea that people possessing certain genes for memory have a distinct advantage is faulty based on Shenk's explanation of the GxE model. Genes have no effect on an individual unless activated or turned on by their environmental interactions. Thus it is possible for a person to have memory genes that give them no advantage whatsoever because their environment has not allowed for them to be transcribed by proteins. Researchers are pursuing this understanding of gene expression from environmental influences to develop drugs to combat diseases such as Alzheimer's by utilizing chemicals to change the packaging of DNA so that specific gene expressions will be altered, this discipline of study is known as epigenetics (http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=b27c3afc-83d6-4f4b-9719-95daa6c37fe5%40sessionmgr110&vid=5&hid=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=sch&AN=32576074).
Overall the ten-thousand-hour mark can be considered a sign of expertise only when it has been spent in deliberate practice which leads to the necessary physiological changes for optimal performance; the involvement of genes is definitely a part of the process, however, the genes themselves are irrelevant without environmental interactions to regulate their expression.
Kate White (kw2020@gmail.com)