ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on how people gain the kinds of capabilities that are typically acquired in mid-childhood and later. As with the more basic capacities that a child acquires early in life, most of the accomplishments that are learned later involve a combination of knowledge and mental skills. Of course, the particular kinds of knowledge and skills that are gained can vary enormously from one area of expertise or knowledge to another. Also, there may be correspondingly large differences in the actual kinds of learning that are needed in order for a person to make progress. Consequently, for example, the steps by which someone becomes an expert mathematician are very different from those that lead to high levels of competence at sports, or music, or chess, or foreign languages. However, this chapter gives more emphasis to what various capabilities share in common than to their unique aspects.
