ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates the evidence that drawing precocity has an innate, biological component. It argues that although it is impossible to isolate ability from practice, there is converging evidence to demonstrate that practice without ability is not enough to explain expertise. The chapter presents in favor of a biological component to drawing expertise is the existence of drawing savants. Savants are people who show prodigious ability in one area but severe disability in all other areas. A study from the domain of music demonstrates that deliberate practice is not sufficient. Meinz and Hambrick compared the relative importance of deliberate practice and working memory capacity in piano sight-reading skills in novice to expert piano players. Deliberate practice explained almost half of the variance in piano sight-reading skills. However, working memory capacity explained variance above and beyond deliberate practice.
