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Cultural determinism is no better than biological determinism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1998

Sandra E. Trehub
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6 trehub@erin.utoronto.ca
E. Glenn Schellenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1 gschelle@is.dal.ca

Abstract

Deliberate practice and experience may suffice as predictors of expertise, but they cannot account for spectacular achievements. Highly variable environmental and biological factors provide facilitating as well as constraining conditions for development, generating relative plasticity rather than absolute plasticity. The skills of virtuosos and idiots savants are more consistent with the talent account than with the deliberate-practice account.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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