Expertise in Contemporary Dance: The Roles of Cognition, Talent, and Deliberate Practice

Figures & data

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of dance steps performance scores as a function of task difficulty and skill level (study 1).

Task difficulty	Skill level	Mean (± SD)	N
Easy	Professional	93.00 (± 6.91)	12
	Some experience	59.50 (± 20.19)	11
	No experience	48.54 (± 13.58)	13
	Total	66.71 (± 23.89)	36
Medium	Professional	90.04 (± 5.90)	12
	Some experience	52.68 (± 19.50)	11
	No experience	32.65 (± 13.98)	13
	Total	57.90 (± 28.04)	36
Hard	Professional	84.38 (± 8.88)	12
	Some experience	41.86 (± 18.49)	11
	No experience	26.46 (± 18.23)	13
	Total	50.47 (± 29.46)	36

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the dependent variables used in study 2.

	Gender	Group	Mean	Std. Deviation	N
Individual practice (Cumulative number of hours)	Female	Professional	2604.73	2361.56	11
		Some experience	184.00	338.08	13
		No experience	118.86	166.38	7
		Total	1028.26	1823.00	31
	Male	Professional	742.44	659.95	9
		Some experience	388.27	761.42	15
		No experience	178.29	230.33	7
		Total	443.68	664.87	31
	Total	Professional	1766.70	2005.53	20
		Some experience	293.43	601.81	28
		No experience	148.57	195.48	14
		Total	735.97	1392.36	62
Group practice (Cumulative number of hours)	Female	Professional	9019.64	7099.83	11
		Some experience	804.00	1379.98	13
		No experience	133.71	98.92	7
		Total	3567.87	5875.90	31
	Male	Professional	3313.56	876.04	9
		Some experience	426.40	1125.31	15
		No experience	193.14	262.95	7
		Total	1211.94	1638.66	31
	Total	Professional	6451.90	5944.41	20
		Some experience	601.71	1240.87	28
		No experience	163.43	193.34	14
		Total	2389.90	4439.71	62
Rehearsing hours (hours per week)	Female	Professional	6.45	6.41	11
		Some experience	1.00	1.63	13
		No experience	.14	.38	7
		Total	2.74	4.77	31
	Male	Professional	5.22	1.72	9
		Some experience	3.53	2.33	15
		No experience	.00	.00	7
		Total	3.23	2.64	31
	Total	Professional	5.90	4.82	20
		Some experience	2.36	2.38	28
		No experience	.07	.27	14
		Total	2.98	3.83	62
Sleeping (hours per day)	Female	Professional	8.55	.93	11
		Some experience	6.62	1.33	13
		No experience	5.86	2.27	7
		Total	7.13	1.80	31
	Male	Professional	9.00	.71	9
		Some experience	5.87	1.55	15
		No experience	5.71	1.70	7
		Total	6.74	2.00	31
	Total	Professional	8.75	.85	20
		Some experience	6.21	1.47	28
		No experience	5.79	1.93	14
		Total	6.94	1.90	62
Concentration	Female	Professional	18.18	2.79	11
		Some experience	19.38	7.62	13
		No experience	26.00	5.29	7
		Total	20.45	6.40	31
	Male	Professional	18.44	2.30	9
		Some experience	18.67	3.66	15
		No experience	26.29	4.54	7
		Total	20.32	4.74	31
	Total	Professional	18.30	2.52	20
		Some experience	19.00	5.73	28
		No experience	26.14	4.74	14
		Total	20.39	5.59	62
Enjoyment	Female	Professional	20.55	.82	11
		Some experience	18.23	8.26	13
		No experience	28.00	.00	7
		Total	21.26	6.50	31
	Male	Professional	20.78	.67	9
		Some experience	16.27	6.03	15
		No experience	25.00	7.94	7
		Total	19.55	6.52	31
	Total	Professional	20.65	.75	20
		Some experience	17.18	7.08	28
		No experience	26.50	5.61	14
		Total	20.40	6.51	62
Dyslexia	Female	Professional	42.45	6.04	11
		Some experience	26.23	5.43	13
		No experience	23.57	13.07	7
		Total	31.39	11.35	31
	Male	Professional	42.56	6.80	9
		Some experience	24.33	5.68	15
		No experience	23.57	11.59	7
		Total	29.45	11.27	31
	Total	Professional	42.50	6.22	20
		Some experience	25.21	5.55	28
		No experience	23.57	11.87	14
		Total	30.42	11.26	62
Handedness	Female	Professional	86.39	20.27	11
		Some experience	29.40	49.05	13
		No experience	73.00	46.12	7
		Total	59.47	47.17	31
	Male	Professional	83.53	11.50	9
		Some experience	43.95	59.92	15
		No experience	50.61	46.59	7
		Total	56.94	49.50	31
	Total	Professional	85.10	16.56	20
		Some experience	37.19	54.64	28
		No experience	61.80	46.03	14
		Total	58.21	47.97	62
Height (in cm)	Female	Professional	155.90	3.78	11
		Some experience	167.72	10.61	13
		No experience	167.29	11.32	7
		Total	163.43	10.38	31
	Male	Professional	175.17	4.89	9
		Some experience	169.67	10.33	15
		No experience	169.90	15.72	7
		Total	171.32	10.58	31
	Total	Professional	164.57	10.69	20
		Some experience	168.76	10.31	28
		No experience	168.59	13.23	14
		Total	167.37	11.13	62

Table 3. Effects of skill and gender on individual practice, group practice, rehearsal hours, sleep, concentration, enjoyment, dyslexia, handedness and height (study 2).

IV	DV	F	DF	Sig	ηp^2
Gender	Individual practice	3.274	1	0.076	0.055
	Group practice*^1	5.840	1	0.019	0.094
	Rehearsal hours	0.219	1	0.641	0.004
	Sleep	0.146	1	0.704	0.003
	Concentration	0.002	1	0.965	0.000
	Enjoyment	1.158	1	0.287	0.020
	Dyslexia	0.85	1	0.772	0.002
	Handedness	0.092	1	0.762	0.002
	Height*	9.277	1	0.004	0.142
Error			56
Skill	Individual practice*	11.243	2	0.000	0.286
	Group practice*	22.298	2	0.000	0.443
	Rehearsal hours*	15.170	2	0.000	0.351
	Sleep*	23.876	2	0.000	0.460
	Concentration*	12.978	2	0.000	0.317
	Enjoyment*	13.038	2	0.000	0.318
	Dyslexia*	35.571	2	0.000	0.560
	Handedness*	6.933	2	0.002	0.198
	Height	0.677	2	0.512	0.024
Error			56
Skill * gender	Individual practice*	5.555	2	0.006	0.166
	Group practice*	5.138	2	0.009	0.155
	Rehearsing hours	2.289	2	0.111	0.076
	Sleep	1.020	2	0.367	0.035
	Concentration	0.081	2	0.922	0.003
	Enjoyment	0.395	2	0.675	0.014
	Dyslexia	0.122	2	0.886	0.004
	Handedness	0.830	2	0.441	0.029
	Height*	5.075	2	0.009	0.153
Error			56

* = The main effect or the interaction was statistically significant.

Table 4. Correlation matrix (study 2).

	Statistics	Handedness	Dyslexia	Ind. practice	Group practice	Rehearsing hours	Sleep	Concentration	Enjoyment	Height	Score
Handedness	Pearson’s r	1	.433**	.315*	.188	.315*	.217	.056	.098	−.010	.067
	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.013	.144	.013	.089	.667	.449	.938	.699
Dyslexia	Pearson’s r	.433**	1	.457**	.420**	.433**	.553**	−.324*	−.060	−.016	.469**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.000	.001	.000	.000	.010	.642	.899	.004
Individual practice	Pearson’s r	.315*	.457**	1	.483**	.716**	.396**	−.175	−.046	−.329**	.373*
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.013	.000		.000	.000	.001	.174	.723	.009	.025
Group practice	Pearson’s r	.188	.420**	.483**	1	.516**	.387**	−.185	−.040	−.240	.599**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.144	.001	.000		.000	.002	.149	.758	.060	.000
Rehearsing hours	Pearson’s r	.315*	.433**	.716**	.516**	1	.379**	−.319*	−.221	−.172	.583**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.013	.000	.000	.000		.002	.011	.084	.181	.000
Sleep	Pearson’s r	.217	.553**	.396**	.387**	.379**	1	−.384**	−.130	.026	.603**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.089	.000	.001	.002	.002		.002	.312	.843	.000
Concentration	Pearson’s r	.056	−.324*	−.175	−.185	−.319*	−.384**	1	.766**	−.062	−.425**
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.667	.010	.174	.149	.011	.002		.000	.633	.010
Enjoyment	Pearson’s r	.098	−.060	−.046	−.040	−.221	−.130	.766**	1	−.077	−.286
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.449	.642	.723	.758	.084	.312	.000		.554	.090
Height	Pearson’s r	−.010	−.016	−.329**	−.240	−.172	.026	−.062	−.077	1	−.296
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.938	.899	.009	.060	.181	.843	.633	.554		.080
Score	Pearson’s r	.067	.469**	.373*	.599**	.583**	.603**	−.425**	−.286	−.296	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.699	.004	.025	.000	.000	.000	.010	.090	.080

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Note: N = 62, except for the correlations with score, where N = 36.