The Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise [Paperback]

SOME COMMENTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

From my view as a theorist and practicing evaluator of university quality and excellence, The psychology of abilities, competencies, and expertise, edited by Robert J. Sternberg and Elena L. Grigorenko, constitutes a first-rate, excellent book. Here are some reasons for this assertion:

1. The main goal of the book, "to characterize the nature of abilities, competencies, and expertice and to understand the relations among them", is fully achieved through out the ten chapters that comprises the book.

2. Each of the chapters provides an innovative contribution to the state of the art in the specific topic approached. Following are just a few examples.

Philip Ackerman and Margaret E. Beir, in chapter one, on trait complexes, cognitive investment, and damain knowledge, concludes with an extremely important implication for assessment and evaluation: "our view of intelligence is that the trait can more usefully be considered as representing "what an individual can do" in a way that encompasses both the solution of novel problems and the solution of problems with which the individual may have an extensive body of knowledge or developed expertise." (p. 25) [Consequently], to serve society and by implication school in a more relevant way, measures "need to be developed that provide a more comprehensive assessment of what an indidivudual can do". (p. 26).

K. Anders Ericsson, in chapter four, concerning theoretical implications from the modifiability and complexity of mechanisms mediating expert performance, concludes that "the analyses of expert performers in domains such as chess, music, and tennis show a qualitative difference in structure and complexity of the mediating mechanisms that such individuals use to progress to higher levels of performance."

Dean Keith Simonton, in chapter eight, about expertise, competence, and creative ability, analyses the nature, definition, and implications of creativity as a psychological capacity. According to him, "creativity entails the capacity to generate ideas that are simultaneusly original and adaptive." (p. 214), [However] "it is not a unique, psychological, phenomenon to be subsumed under a simple conceptual scheme [but] rather ... a complicated and dynamic mixture of various components, some innate and others experimental." (p. 232).

Robert J. Sternberg, in chapter nine, concerning biological intelligence, analyses the most relevant biological approaches to intelligence, as well as the nature of adaptation to the environment. According to Sternberg,

Biological intelligence refers to an organism's ability to adapt to the biological/physiical environment as measured by transmission of genes.... [However], biological approaches to intelligence have largely ignored this basic and singular fact, and have instead "attempted to account for (a) how humans among other species have reached the top of the existing evolutionary scale in intelligence or (b) biological mechanisms that account for individual differences in human intelligence (p. 253). [But], a central conclusion by Sternberg is that "humans may well be at the top of some evolutionary scale in terms of cultural intelligence. In terms of biological intelligence, they are, at best, middling. They have been responsible, directly or indirectly, for the extinction of a number of species. At the rate there are going, they may soon be responsible for the extinction of their own (p. 257).

Finally, Richard E. Mayer, in chapter ten, about what causes individual differences in cognitive performance, "provides a model of the determinants of individual differences in cognitive performance and show how it relates to some of the proposed answers provided by the contributors to this book." (p. 263). He concludes with the assertion that "additional research is needed to articulate more clearly the mechanism by which ability and experience interact to produce knowledge and the mechanism by which knowledge anables cognitive performance." (p. 273).

On the basis of this review, I do recommend reading this book without omitting any of the chapters, as they all contribute in substantive and theoretical terms to give us an excellent overview of the state of the art concerning the topics approached.

Hernando Salcedo-Galvis

***

This collection of authored chapters is an excellent exploration of the concepts of ability, competence and expertise. Authors of the ten chapters differ in their conclusions about the role of heredity, experience and the interaction between the two in producing skilled cognitive performance. Their well-articulated arguments introduce the reader to important research findings and deep theoretical differences in this domain.

In the final chapter, Richard Mayer synthesizes these competing views into an interactionist model of the development of competencies and expertise from innate abilities and experience. His "eight key facts" are a concise summary of the territory explored by his coauthors:

* Fact 1: There are clearly documented developmental trends, with specialized knowledge increasing with chronological age and general mental abilities declining.
* Fact 2: The "Flynn Effect"--the steady increase in overall IQ scores in recent decades--implies a significant effect of culture, education or some combination of environmental effects on cognitive performance.
* Fact 3: Studies of identical twins reared apart reveal a clear genetic influence on cognitive performance.
* Fact 4: Studies of diverse skills such as digit span and musical ability document the effects of extended, specialized practice on cognitive performance.
* Fact 5: Case studies of "savants" with high abilities in an isolated skill and diminished functioning in other abilities demonstrate that highly specialized cognitive performance can be "modular"--and can exist in relative isolation.
* Fact 6: Studies of the development of musical abilities show relatively greater importance of practice and environmental support than of innate or initial ability.
* Fact 7: Expertise and creativity have different learning curves. Expertise increases monotonically, benefits from overtraining, and is interfered with by cross training on other domains, while creative performance peaks toward the middle of training, benefits from cross training and declines with overtraining.
* Fact 8: Higher and lower ability individuals show different patterns of neurological function. Lower ability people show higher levels of brain activity during cognitive testing while higher ability people have greater activity when resting.

This book is a useful entrance point into the nature vs. nurture controversy as it is played out among researchers in human intelligence and expertise. It serves the competency modeling community by presenting a framework within which to decide which competencies are more influenced by innate ability and which may be more highly trainable.

This is a very interesting book that has sections written by a variety of experts in the field of motivational psychology. One of the most interesting chapters for me is written regarding "The Multiplier Effect" which explains how one remains motivated through instrinsic and certain extrinsic rewards. Very in depth and fairly complex reading but well worth it for those with interest in this field. Also includes chapters regarding the search for innate abilities and current scientific thought regarding it's influence on the achievement and acquisition of skills.

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