Section:GDN 1N PaGe:11 Edition Date:190821 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 20/8/2019 19:32 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Wednesday 21 Au g u st 2019 The Guardian •
National^11
Practice does not always make perfect - it
depends on natural talent, researchers fi nd
Ian Sample
Science editor
With blatant disregard for the public
benefits of motivational idioms,
researchers have concluded that
practice does not, necessarily, make
perfect.
A study of violinists found that
merely good players practi sed as much
as, if not more than, better players,
leaving other factors such as quality
of tuition, learning skills and perhaps
natural talent to account for diff er-
ence. The work is the latest blow to
the so-called 10,000-hour rule, the
idea promoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s
2008 book, Outliers, which has been
taken to mean enough practice will
make an expert of anyone. In the book,
Gladwell says “ten thousand hours is
the magic number of greatness”.
“The idea has become really
entrenched in our culture, but it’s an
oversimplifi cation,” said Brooke Mac-
namara, a psychologist at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
“When it comes to human skill, a com-
plex combination of environmental
factors, genetic factors and their
interactions explains the performance
diff erences across people.”
The seed for the 10,000-hours rule
was a 1993 study of violinists and
pianists , which found that accumu-
lated practice time rose with musical
prowess. On average, top-ranked
violinists had clocked up 10,
hours of practice by the age of 20,
though many had actually put in far
fewer hours. In the study, the authorsrejected an important role for natural
talent and said diff erences in ability,
even among top musicians, were
largely down to how much they prac-
ti sed. Gladwell seized on the round
number to explain the success of
notables from Bill Gates to The Beatles.
Macnamara and a colleague, Megha
Maitra, set out to repeat part of the 1993
study to see whether they reached the
same conclusions. They interviewedthree groups of 13 violinists rated
as best, good, or less accomplished,
about practice habits. The violinists
complete activity diaries for a week.
While the less skilful violinists
clocked up an average of about 6,
hours by the age of 20, there was
little to separate the good from the
best musicians, with each logging
an average of about 11,000 hours.
In all, the number of hours practi s-
ing accounted for about a quarter of
the skills diff erence across the three
groups, according to the study pub-
lished in Royal Society Open Science.
Above a certain level, Macnamara
believes practice is less of a driver.
“Once you get to the highly skilled
groups, practice stops accounting for
the diff erence. Everyone has practised
a lot and other factors are at play inPerry and
Emin works
go on show
as regional
galleries link
with British
Museum
Mark Brown
Arts correspondent
Drawings by David Hockney, Rachel
Whiteread, Tracey Emin , and an
early depiction by Grayson Perry of
his transvestite alter-ego Claire , are
to go on display as part of a British
Museum exhibition that could herald a
new way of collaborating with regional
galleries.
Instead of creating the show in-
house and then sending it out on tour,
the museum has co-curated it with the
venues where it will be shown.
Isabel Seligman, a curator of prints
and drawings at the British Museum ,
said that the process had been
collaborative and democratic. “It has
been a rewarding, amazing experience
and has given us new perspectives on
the collection,” she said.
The contemporary drawings exhibi-
tion shines light on a less well-known
part of the museum’s collection.
“They are fi nally going to get the
limelight they deserve,” said Seligman.
“There are some really fantastic works
by some of the most important con-
temporary artists working today.”
Perry, a trustee of the museum,
said he was delighted the show was
taking place. “Since the dawn of time
drawing has been and still is a vital and
central component of visual art. How
else would I get an image out of my
determining who goes on to that
super-elite level,” she said. The factors
depend on the skill being learned: in
chess it could be intelligence or work-
ing memory, in sport it may be how
efficiently a person uses oxygen.
To complicate matters further, one
factor can drive another, she said. A
child who enjoys playing the violin,
for example, may be happy to prac-
ti se and be focused on the task because
they do not see it as a chore.
The authors of the 1993 study are
unimpressed. One co-author, Anders
Ericsson , a psychologist at Florida
State University, said the new paper
replicated most of their findings.
Another co-author on the 1993 study,
Ralf Krampe, a psychologist at the
Catholic University of Leuven, said:
“ I still consider deliberate practice to
be by far the most important factor.”
Macnamara said it was important
to understand the limits of practice,
though. “Practice makes you better
than you were yesterday, most of the
time,” she said. “But it might not make
you better than your neighbour. Or the
other kid in your violin class.”▲ Jan Vanriet’s
2011 drawing of a
girl, from a series
based on photos
of Jews sent to
Auschwitz in the
early 1940s Watercolour by
Grayson Perry, a
depiction of his
alter-ego, drawn
when he was 24
PHOTOGRAPH:
BRITISH MUSEUManimal, from symbols of manliness
and heteronormativity.
More than 50 drawings will be
in cluded in the show. Some, such as
the watercolour entitled Ruchla by the
Belgian artist Jan Vanriet , are going▲ Drawing in ink
and graphite by
Richard Deacon,
2006, included
in show involving
regional gallerieson display for the fi rst time. Vanriet’s
watercolour shows a Jewish girl, part
of his series based on mugshot s of Jews
deported between 1942 and 1944 from
the Dossin barracks in Belgium to the
death camps at Auschwitz.
Other highlights include a satirical
Philip Guston drawing made when
Richard Nixon was at the height of his
popularity, two years before Water-
gate. The fl accid depiction of Nixon
suggests Guston was never a fan.
The show, entitled Pushing Paper:
contemporary drawing from 1970 to
now, is at the British Museum from 12
September and will tour from 2020
to 2021. The exhibition has been
co-curated by Seligman along with
col leagues from the Oriental Museum,
in Durham, the Pier Arts Centre, in
Stromness, Orkney , the Glynn Vivian
Art Gallery, Swansea, and the Cooper
Gallery in Barnsley.
Katy Freer, exhibitions offi cer at
the Glynn Vivian, said working on the
show had been an “absolute delight”.
She added: “At a time when regional
venues can struggle with funding,
this collaboration with the British
Museum will bring some fantastic
works to Swansea and it will be great
to see them [displayed] with works
from our own collection.”▲ Sovereign 3 (2005), a watercolour
by the sculptor Hew Lockehead and into the world?” His drawing
of Claire, his alter-ego, using crayon,
watercolour, collage and glitter, was
done when he was about 24 years old.
The character is shown in a ra-ra skirt
and hoodie, creeping away, like an‘At the top, practice
stops accounting
for the diff erence’Brooke Macnamara
Co-author of new studyRELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws