The evolution and development of 'expertise' through time
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The evolution and development of 'expertise' through time
#1 
by scruffy » May 06, 2011 7:37 pm
I've recently taken an interest to a study by Ericsson, Krampfe, and Tesh-Romer entitled 'The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance'. It has me wondering though, why do we as humans work so hard to master things? From psych-motor tasks such as putting a ball through a hoop, to cognitive activities such as strategically moving carved pieces of wood across a checkered playing board, we work hard to dominate and become the best we can at what seem to be ridiculous and arbitrary activities.
Has there been any sort of research or hypothesis as to how these activities began to develop? The best I can figure, an activity such as running, or spear-throwing has clear benefits. Our ability to master and take on these different aspects of 'the hunt' would clearly be of considerable benefit when it came to hunting down our food for survival, and a clan's ability to compete and push their skills further would allow them to more efficiently take down their prey.
Where do you think most of our classical leisure activities had their beginning? I'm looking at both psycho-motor activities such as long-distance running, throwing, archery, swimming, etc. as well as cognitive activities such as debate, war planning, chess (and similar intellectual games), etc.
EDIT: I apologize if this is not in the correct forum, I couldn't decide where it would best fit.
Has there been any sort of research or hypothesis as to how these activities began to develop? The best I can figure, an activity such as running, or spear-throwing has clear benefits. Our ability to master and take on these different aspects of 'the hunt' would clearly be of considerable benefit when it came to hunting down our food for survival, and a clan's ability to compete and push their skills further would allow them to more efficiently take down their prey.
Where do you think most of our classical leisure activities had their beginning? I'm looking at both psycho-motor activities such as long-distance running, throwing, archery, swimming, etc. as well as cognitive activities such as debate, war planning, chess (and similar intellectual games), etc.
EDIT: I apologize if this is not in the correct forum, I couldn't decide where it would best fit.
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Re: The evolution and development of 'expertise' through tim
#2 by Mr.Samsa » May 08, 2011 3:00 am
You seem to be hinting at a possible evolutionary origin, which I think is a mistaken way of looking at it. It is akin to Gould and Lewontin's comment on how looking for the evolutionary explanation for blood being red is to fail to grasp the point that not all traits that come about are adaptive or shaped by evolutionary forces - some are what they called "spandrels". These are essentially evolutionary by-products, rather than direct products of selection.
I think it's almost certain that the development of "mastery" that you're asking about is a spandrel, as it's a necessary off-spin of our ability to learn (which is itself a spandrel, as learning is just a natural extension of being able to experience pleasure and pain). When we learn something, we go through the process of "shaping" which is the successive approximations of behavior to the 'target' behavior through reinforcement and punishment. This can be 'artificial' like in behavioral experiments where we shape animals to operate levers or buttons in order to complete some task that we've set up, or it can be 'natural' where the environmental contingencies already in place make some behaviors more or less likely to develop. The best way to think of this process is to treat it as the natural selection of behavior. That is, if we are training a rat to press a lever, then we will reward any attempt to move towards the lever, to sniff it, press it, etc, and we refrain from rewarding any behaviors which do not approximate the 'lever pressing' behavior we are aiming for. As such, what happens is that successful behaviors are selected, and unsuccessful behaviors are culled off.
The important thing to remember is that this occurs across the lifetime of an individual and it is not passed on through genetics.
To apply this more directly to your questions, we simply need to identify the reinforcement contingencies behind each behavior. In regards to playing chess, for example, our overall mastery of the game likely stems from very immediate rewards and punishment for our moves - if we make a move and immediately lose that piece, then we are less likely to make that move again in the future (that "species" of behavior becomes "extinct"). This leads to a more sophisticated form of chess playing, where we might be able to avoid immediately losing pieces but still losing the game because we aren't thinking about what moves we need to make ahead of time (i.e. thinking two or three steps ahead). So then this more advanced behavior becomes selected and culled, and so on, until we eventually master chess.
Why do we engage in these activities? Simply, because they're fun. What we find enjoyable or interesting or exciting is largely a product of our learning environment as we grow up and develop, so for someone who is raised in an environment where competition is reinforced, people will enjoy the satisfaction of beating other people. So if someone asks them if they want a game of chess, they'll accept because the thought of beating someone at a game or task is rewarding to them. Obviously with things like running there might be other factors at play - perhaps it's an extension of the reinforcement we receive when we start walking, with our parents clapping and smiling etc, so the whole notion of motion becomes reinforcing. There are also innate reinforcement contingencies, known as 'automatic reinforcement', which shape behaviors as a result of how they satisfy more intrinsic aspects of ourselves. For example, the feeling after we scratch an itch is automatic reinforcement, and so we learn how to scratch to make itches go away. The same could apply to behaviors like running where we find reinforcement in simple things like the wind running through our hair, or the endorphins that are released, etc.
I think the main thing that you should take away from my post is that all behaviors are developed through the same learning mechanisms - in science, there is nothing fundamentally different between the way we learn how to solve complex algebraic equations, and how rats learn to find cheese at the end of the T-maze. If you want a more comprehensive understanding of the science of behavior and learning, then I recommend this book: Understanding Behaviorism by William Baum, or Learning and Behavior by James Mazur. I personally prefer Mazur's book, but unfortunately there's no preview in Google Books.
I think it's almost certain that the development of "mastery" that you're asking about is a spandrel, as it's a necessary off-spin of our ability to learn (which is itself a spandrel, as learning is just a natural extension of being able to experience pleasure and pain). When we learn something, we go through the process of "shaping" which is the successive approximations of behavior to the 'target' behavior through reinforcement and punishment. This can be 'artificial' like in behavioral experiments where we shape animals to operate levers or buttons in order to complete some task that we've set up, or it can be 'natural' where the environmental contingencies already in place make some behaviors more or less likely to develop. The best way to think of this process is to treat it as the natural selection of behavior. That is, if we are training a rat to press a lever, then we will reward any attempt to move towards the lever, to sniff it, press it, etc, and we refrain from rewarding any behaviors which do not approximate the 'lever pressing' behavior we are aiming for. As such, what happens is that successful behaviors are selected, and unsuccessful behaviors are culled off.
The important thing to remember is that this occurs across the lifetime of an individual and it is not passed on through genetics.
To apply this more directly to your questions, we simply need to identify the reinforcement contingencies behind each behavior. In regards to playing chess, for example, our overall mastery of the game likely stems from very immediate rewards and punishment for our moves - if we make a move and immediately lose that piece, then we are less likely to make that move again in the future (that "species" of behavior becomes "extinct"). This leads to a more sophisticated form of chess playing, where we might be able to avoid immediately losing pieces but still losing the game because we aren't thinking about what moves we need to make ahead of time (i.e. thinking two or three steps ahead). So then this more advanced behavior becomes selected and culled, and so on, until we eventually master chess.
Why do we engage in these activities? Simply, because they're fun. What we find enjoyable or interesting or exciting is largely a product of our learning environment as we grow up and develop, so for someone who is raised in an environment where competition is reinforced, people will enjoy the satisfaction of beating other people. So if someone asks them if they want a game of chess, they'll accept because the thought of beating someone at a game or task is rewarding to them. Obviously with things like running there might be other factors at play - perhaps it's an extension of the reinforcement we receive when we start walking, with our parents clapping and smiling etc, so the whole notion of motion becomes reinforcing. There are also innate reinforcement contingencies, known as 'automatic reinforcement', which shape behaviors as a result of how they satisfy more intrinsic aspects of ourselves. For example, the feeling after we scratch an itch is automatic reinforcement, and so we learn how to scratch to make itches go away. The same could apply to behaviors like running where we find reinforcement in simple things like the wind running through our hair, or the endorphins that are released, etc.
I think the main thing that you should take away from my post is that all behaviors are developed through the same learning mechanisms - in science, there is nothing fundamentally different between the way we learn how to solve complex algebraic equations, and how rats learn to find cheese at the end of the T-maze. If you want a more comprehensive understanding of the science of behavior and learning, then I recommend this book: Understanding Behaviorism by William Baum, or Learning and Behavior by James Mazur. I personally prefer Mazur's book, but unfortunately there's no preview in Google Books.
"The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man." - B.F.Skinner.
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