Practice Makes Perfect: Testing The Theory

This experiment will focus on the theory that practice makes perfect. Research has proven that repeating behaviors over a period of time improves a person’s skills in that specific behavior. Although practice will improve skill, research also shows that it must be the correct type of practice. “There is the “10,000 hour rule, which is the belief that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours to become accomplished. A 1993 study suggested that practice accounted for about 80 percent of the difference between elite performance and amateur performance” ( Cherry, 2018). Ultimately, doing well in any area takes years of practice but it is just one piece of the process. Perhaps more of a realist, Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA, writes that to go from “knowing nothing to being pretty good” actually takes about 20 hours of practice – that’s 45 minutes every day for a month. So whether you aspire to “pretty good” or “expert,” practice is essential. There is also many aspects of practicing that not only focuses on skill but also on intellectual understanding of what you are trying to learn. The basic concept of intellectual understanding is being smart about what you do. An example of being smart about what you do is to have a strategy. A good strategy may even play more of an important role than skill. It is important to have an effective practice in order to see improvement. An effective practice is doing something in an efficient way. “In order to do something in an efficient way, you have to set goals and get as close as possible to achieving those goals.

When those goals are met a person’s time and efficiency is maximized” (Amy Du Vernet,2014). Hambrick said, “The evidence is quite clear that some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice.” The research found that a person’s working memory capacity could mean the difference between being good and being great. Working memory is the ability to simultaneously hold and manipulate multiple pieces of information in the mind. “ While the specialize knowledge that accumulates through practice is the most important ingredient to reach a very high level of skill, it’s not always sufficient” ( Rice University, 2014). Many of the different research done all appear to suggest that practice alone without a more cognitive focus does not ensure growth and improvement. They way people process the information that is being presented to them has a correlation to how they are able to take the information and apply it to the skill they are trying to achieve. This could mean that even if two people practice for the same amount of time regularly one might achieve more success than the other. The theory of practice makes perfect is somewhat of a blanket statement. There is also different types of practice such as active and passive practice. Active practice would be defined as physically participating in a repetitive activity in an attempt to gain a higher skill level. Passive practice would be defined as observing a repetitive behavior and apply those observations in an attempt to gain a higher skill level.

According to a study conducted by a team at Dartmouth’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, they found that there was common activity in the same areas of the brain during both passive and active practice and the skill levels were comparable. Professor Hambrick says that “ deliberate practice is not sufficient enough to explain individual’s differences in performance. He argues that someone who doesn’t practice as much could still produce an elite level of performance. He summed up that if people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving those goals they may focus their energy on those areas and become highly skilled in those areas. The focus needs to be more on the individual rather than a whole group of people. When researching the question does practice make perfect there are many factors to consider and there are no exact answers. One of the first areas to consider is the fact that every person is different and learns and processes information differently. That fact alone makes it difficult to state with 100% certainty if practice makes perfect. There is also the physical aspect of practicing a skill. Again people have different physical skill levels that cause different results for each person. There are different types of practices that a person can do during their attempt to master a skill. An example of some different types of practices are, passive and active.

Both of these types of practices can still produce similar results. The definition of practice can have more than one meaning so there must be clarity on the definition too. Based on the overall information collected from the various studies that were conducted a high skill level does not just come from how much you practice but more how you practice. Each person attempting to reach a higher level of skill needs to also apply self discipline and motivation. Those characteristics vary from person to person and also play a role in answering the question does practice make perfect. A popular gamer, Tfue, is an example of how this concept can be seen. He has been able to increase his wins by a sizable amount due to his dedication and practice to the game. He gives some suggestions and strategies to help perfect the game such as “Never fight someone in solos and never get hit” (FAKE DEFAULT SKINS MUST BE STOPPED!!,2018) “His skill at the game has also brought him money” (Tfue* First Games/Old Days* on Fortnite., 2018) People are interested in trying to gain insight into his success. Is it skill or practice or both? Lastly, the term perfect when asking if practice makes perfect depends on what the definition of perfect is. It can mean a perfect score, perfect form, perfect winning record. There are many factors that should be considered when researching if practice makes perfect but maybe the real question should be does practice make you better not perfect? Perfect has many different definitions just like people have many different skill levels. The focus of the experiment needs to be well defined and not too difficult to measure in order to give well documented outcome.