ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of research on individual differences in domain-general ability and domain-specific skill, their relative contribution to talent and expertise, and then examines the measurement of talent. It also examines issues related to talent development, with a specific focus on practice and preconditions for performance improvement. In sum, over the last few decades one might argue that the nature-nurture debate has not always led to advances in talent science that one might have hoped. Rather, there appears to have been an overemphasis on counting practice hours and, compared to other dialectical debates, there has seldom been a push towards a synthesis of perspectives. Hence, the focus going forward should be on increasing the training value of the deliberate practice by gaining a better understanding of how experts learn, and identifying the training principles and methods that can accelerate the development of resilient and adaptive skill.
