Attaining Expertise
Selina Appel
Psych/640 Cognitive Psychology
May 12, 2014
Brian Newbury

Attaining Expertise
Encyclopedias describe an Expert as “one who is very skillful and well-informed in any given domain field, one who has acquired special skill in or knowledge about a particular subject through professional training and practical experience” (Webster’s, 1976, p. 800). It is said that humans are the only species to acquire such knowledge in attaining expertise (Anderson, 2009). Expertise refers to the skills, knowledge and characteristics needed to distinguish experts from novices and people with less experience. The process of attaining expertise begins with learning the fundamental skills needed in any particular domain, while learning to apply sound principles of that domain. Another part of processing is to apply critical thinking skills to find solutions to complex problems or situations. Before a person can excel in a particular domain they must first be willing to learn and absorb information. “There is a relatively widespread conception that if individuals are innately talented, they can easily and rapidly achieve an exceptional level of performance once they have acquired basic skills and knowledge” (Ericcon, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993, p.366).
Stages of Acquisition
Acquisition is the act of acquiring, learning or developing of a skill. There are three stages of acquisition, cognitive, associative, and autonomous. In acquisition people are able to experience, learn, and refine motor skills. These skills greatly affect a person’s ability to perform in any physical activity. The three stages of acquisition discuss the processes that people undertake when learning a new skill. In addition, the processes from learning these skills can be adapted by individuals to help learn these types of skills more easily and quickly. These three stages allow