Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Harris, Kevin R.
URN	etd-06232008-133411
Title	Deliberate Practice, Mental Representations, and Skilled Performance in Bowling
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Psychology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title K. Anders Ericsson Committee Chair Colleen M. Kelley Committee Member E. Ashby Plant Committee Member J. Michael Spector Committee Member Neil H. Charness Committee Member
Keywords	Deliberate Practice Expertise Skill Motion Analysis Expert Performance
Date of Defense	2008-05-15
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract The acquisition of skilled performance via deliberate practice is posited to result in consistency of task performance via refined representations of task requirements (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). In the present study, skilled ten-pin bowling performance was captured with standardized tasks and the execution variability of the bowling movements were monitored and related to success rate. Two approaches are introduced, the expert performance approach, which proposes cognitive mediation of task performance via mental representations, and the ecological/dynamical systems approach, which proposes that environmental information is the primary mediator of performance. Skilled and novice participants were asked to bowl twenty times each under a combination of full- and occluded- environmental (visual and auditory) conditions for spares and strikes. Skilled participants were found to exhibit low levels of execution variability and high success rates during normal spare and strike conditions. Analysis of the estimates of hours engaged in deliberate practice activities support the development of reduced variability through engagement in such activities. The role of environmental information on task performance was directly tested during the occluded conditions. The findings indicate that skilled participants maintain low execution variability during occluded conditions for both spare and strike trials. However, skilled participants maintain their performance advantage for success rate during occluded-environmental conditions for strike trials but not the spare trials. Further investigation of the decrease in success rate despite low execution variability revealed that participants were scaling down (shortening) the approach, likely due to a fear of falling by crossing the foul line. The accumulated evidence of the present study supports a mental representations approach but future research is proposed to buttress the current findings.
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