ABSTRACT
A study of exceptional pianists by M. Krampe and K. A. Ericsson showed that although natural talent is crucial entry qualification for a distinguished career as a musician, the great gap in achievement between excellent music teachers and internationally distinguished concert pianists is brought about by a difference of thousands of hours of deliberate practice maintained over decades. To compare how old age affects “raw” intellectual potential and learned skills, John Horn gave volunteers tests of intelligence, information processing speed and memory, which he termed “fluid abilities”, and tests of acquired information, such as vocabulary and social competence, which are, clearly, learned skills. A different and more interesting question is whether there are differences in the survival of different mental skills so that high achievement in philosophy, painting and music remain possible after aging has degraded excellence at mathematics, hard science and poetry.
