It takes more than practice to succeed, large-scale research finds

Researchers from Rice University, Princeton University and the University of Michigan teamed up to conduct a meta-analysis of 88 previous studies that debate the age-old question of whether practice makes perfect, concluding that while it's essential, it's unlikely what makes the difference between an "almost" and an "expert."

The study explored the role of deliberate practice in music, games and sports, as well as educational and occupational domains, involving upwards of 11,000 participants.

At the root of the ongoing debate is a 1993 paper by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson saying that 10,000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice, which he defines as "a regimen of effortful activities designed to optimize improvement," can make anyone an expert.

Researchers involved in the new study expressed ultra-high standards in defining someone as an expert, indicating that their work explores the unique successes of a select few.

"Why do so few people who are involved in sports such as golf, musical instruments such as the violin or careers such as law or medicine ever reach an expert level of performance?" says Fred Oswald, professor and chair of psychology at Rice and one of the study's co-authors.

Researchers averaged results across all relevant studies within each domain and found that deliberate practice made the difference for 26 percent of game-players, 21 percent of musicians and 18 percent of athletes, while the difference came to 4 percent for education and less than 1 percent for professions.

"Deliberate practice was a strong overall predictor of success in many performance domains, and not surprisingly, people who report practicing a lot generally tend to perform at a higher level than people who practice less," Oswald said.

Oswald criticized the tendency of researchers to minimize the role of basic abilities in the face of practice when assessing performance potential.

"However, perhaps the more important contribution of our study is that no matter how strongly practice predicted performance in our findings, there was always statistical room for other personal factors to predict learning a skill and performing successfully, including basic abilities."

The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, concluded that although practice is unlikely to make perfect for all but a select few, it will improve anyone's game.