Cognitive/Intellectual Abilities as Predictors of Skilled Performance: Answering the Which, When, and How Questions

Abstract

Recently, there has been a re-emergence of interest in the cognitive ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition and skilled performance. First we review some basic characteristics of individual differences in skill acquisition. We next consider the current evidence for the emergent “task-specific” factor, a matter that may have important implications for the utility of ability measures as predictors of individual differences in asymptotic skilled performance. We also review two major factors in determining the relations between abilities and individual differences in skill acquisition, advances in theory and the enlargement of the data base for discussion of the topic. We address these factors, in the context of a discussion of “which” abilities predict individual differences in skilled performance, “when” such predictors are maximally effective, and “how” abilities and information processing demands interact to determine ability-performance associations.