Training High-Performance Skills: Fallacies and Guidelines

TLDR

High‑performance skills require over 100 hours of training, yet many fail to achieve proficiency and expert performance differs qualitatively from novices; training programs often rely on assumptions suited to simple skills, which can be fallacious, and empirical studies reveal long acquisition periods, heterogeneous component learning, inappropriate strategy development, and time‑sharing skill training. The authors propose a tentative set of working guidelines for acquiring high‑performance skills. These guidelines are derived from a review of empirical characteristics and the identification of six training fallacies. Six training fallacies are described, including long acquisition periods, heterogeneous component learning, inappropriate strategy development, and training of time‑sharing skills.

Abstract

A high-performance skill is defined as one for which (1) more than 100 hours of training are required, (2) substantial numbers of individuals fail to develop proficiency, and (3) the performance of the expert is qualitatively different from that of the novice. Training programs for developing high-performance skills are often based on assumptions that may be appropriate for simple skills. These assumptions can be fallacious when extended to high performance skills. Six fallacies of training are described. Empirical characteristics of high-performance skill acquisition are reviewed. These include long acquisition periods, heterogeneity of component learning, development of inappropriate strategies, and training of timesharing skills. A tentative set of working guidelines for the acquisition of high-performance skills is described.